California State University at Northridge
San Francisco
CSUN Wraps up Non-Conference Play at USF Challenge
9/17/2025 10:47:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
CSUNÂ THIS WEEK - USF CHALLENGE:
MATCH #1 (SEASON MATCH #10)
CSUN Matadors (5-4) @ San Francisco Dons (2-5)
Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025Â - 6:00 p.m. PT
War Memorial at the Sobrato Center - San Francisco, Calif.
ESPN+Â //Â Live Stats
MATCH #2Â (SEASON MATCH #11)
CSUN Matadors vs. San José State Spartans
Friday, Sept. 19, 2025 - 3:00 p.m. PT
War Memorial at the Sobrato Center - San Francisco, Calif.
Live Stats
In-game X updates:Â @CSUNWVB
CSUN WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL MEDIA NOTES
FORÂ STARTERS
The CSUN Women's Volleyball team (5-4, 0-0 Big West) concludes the non-conference season this week as the Matadors travel to the Bay Area for two matches at the USF Challenge. CSUN takes on San Francisco on Thursday and San José State on Friday at USF's War Memorial at the Sobrato Center. Both matches are scheduled for a 6 p.m. first serve. The Matadors are coming off a 1-2 week, defeating Santa Clara (3-0) in Fresno before falling to Lipscomb (3-1) at home and Fresno State (3-2) on the road.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS
CSUN's match against San Francisco on Thursday will be streamed live on ESPN+, while Friday's match against San José State will have live stats only. For CSUN home matches, Darren Preston returns to call women's volleyball in 2025 and will be joined by men's volleyball assistant coach Ryan Mason for select matches.
Fans can follow CSUN Matador women's volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www.GoMatadors.com. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official X feed (@GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNWVB) for news and notes throughout the week, as well as updates of matches in progress.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
San Francisco (2-5) hosts San Jose State in the first match of the USF Challenge on Wednesday. The Dons are 2-5 this season after dropping two of its three matches of the Boise State Invitational last week. USF defeated Idaho State (3-0) before falling to host Boise State (3-0) and Utah Tech (3-0). Maeve Bailey posted 27 kills in three matches to earn all-tournament team honors.
Series: Thursday's match is the 13th meeting all-time between the Matadors and Dons, with the all-time series tied at six wins apiece. The Matadors, 2-5 all-time at USF, won the most recent meeting between the two teams, 3-2 at the Sacramento State Invitational in 2024.
San José State (3-5) has dropped two straight after falling in five sets at home to Santa Clara on Tuesday. The Spartans hit a season-high .314 in the loss, led by Lolo Fonua who hit .364 with 14 kills on 33 attempts and only two errors. Prior to Tuesday, San José State split a pair of matches at the Mustang Invitational, sweeping California before falling to host Cal Poly (3-0).
Series: Friday's match is the 14th meeting all time between CSUN and San José State, with the Matadors holding a slim 7-6 edge in the all-time series. The Spartans have won two straight in the series, both wins coming during the 2023 season. CSUN is 4-3 all-time against the Spartans in neutral site matches.Â
SENTES CLOSES IN ON 900 CAREER DIGS
With a team-high 182 digs this season, junior libero Paige Sentes continues to lead the Big West while also closing in on 900 digs in her CSUN career. The conference leader in digs per set over the first three weeks of the season, Sentes is currently averaging 4.55 digs per set which leads UCR's Jessica Dean who ranks second at 4.23 digs per set. After posting the fifth-best total in CSUN's Rally Scoring era with 468 digs last season, Sentes now has 884 career digs which trails Angela Hupp by 77 digs. Hupp currently holds 10th place on the program's Rally Scoring era list.
BAZYLEVYCH, OGDEN CONTINUE TO SHINEÂ
With 134 kills this season, junior Julia Bazylevych has taken over the team lead. Bazylevych, who came into the season with 109 career kills (all in 2024), leads the Matadors with eight double digit matches in kills and five double-doubles this season. She had a career match against Eastern Washington, putting down a career-high 26 kills while hitting .262 on 61 swings which was also a career-high. Bazylevych now has 20 or more kills twice this season.
After a break-out weekend in Portland (Sept. 4-6), sophomore Hayley Ogden continued her impressive play with a season-high 16 kills on .652 hitting against Fresno State on Sunday. Ogden, who earned all-tournament honors at the Portland Invitational, has moved into the Big West's top five in hitting percentage (.402 - 3rd) and is also eighth in blocks per set (1.00). Ogden is now hitting .438 over her last six matches with 59 kills and just 10 errors on 112 swings.Â
CSUN'S BIG WEST RANKINGS
As a team, the Matadors rank as high as third in the Big West in a pair of statistical categories. CSUN is third in both assists per set (11.73) and digs per set (13.90). The Matadors are also fourth in both opponent hitting percentage (.202) and kills per set (13.00). Individually, in addition to Bazylevych and Ogden, Leah Miller ranks seventh in hitting percentage (.322) and 14th in kills per set (2.65). Amaris Smith ranks 20th in kills per set (2.53), Jan Marie Duhaylungsod ranks 18th in aces per set (0.26), Katie Kolar ranks fifth in assists per set (8.72), and Tatiana Turgeon ranks seventh in blocks per set (1.04).
CSUN QUICK SETS
The Matadors' two matches in San Francisco this week wrap up CSUN's non-conference schedule in 2025. With five wins in nine non-conference matches this season, the Matadors have already matched the non-conference win total from Aquiles Montoya's first season. CSUN finished 5-6 in 11 non-conference matches in 2024, three more wins than the Matadors had in 2023 (2) ... Since Kolar suffered an injury against Portland, Duhaylungsod and Taylor Dunlap have combined for 127 assists in Kolar's absence. Duhaylungsod has 70 assists in CSUN's last three matches, while Dunlap has 57, including a career-high 31 at Fresno State on Sunday.
CSUN HEAD COACH AQUILES MONTOYAÂ
Aquiles Montoya opens his second season as head coach of the CSUN Women's Volleyball team in 2025. In his first season, Montoya led the Matadors to a 10-19 overall record, as CSUN reached double figures in wins for the first time since 2019. With five Big West wins, Montoya led CSUN to its highest conference win total in three seasons. He was named the ninth head coach of the CSUN women's volleyball program on Apr. 10, 2024. Montoya arrived at CSUN after spending the past four seasons as associate head coach and director of recruiting at Portland State. Portland State made consecutive postseason appearances in 2021 and 2022, qualifying for the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC). The Vikings won their first-round match in 2021, giving Portland State its first win at a national postseason tournament in Division I program history. The Vikings' rise in the Big Sky Conference coincided with Montoya's tenure as an assistant and associate head coach under Portland State head coach Michael Seeman. The Vikings posted winning seasons, both overall and in conference play, in each of Montoya's last three seasons while reaching the Big Sky championship match in 2022, their first appearance since 2013. Prior to Portland State, Montoya spent the previous three seasons as the lead assistant of the Pacific Boxers' varsity team.
LOOKING AHEAD
CSUN nears the end of a stretch that sees the Matadors play 10 of 11 road matches next week, opening Big West play with matches at Cal Poly (Sept. 26) and UC Santa Barbara (Sept. 27). The road stretch wraps up at Cal State Bakersfield on Oct. 2, before CSUN returns home to host Hawai'i on Oct. 4.
#GoMatadors
