California State University Northridge Athletics
California State University at Northridge
Princeton
No. 17 CSUN Hosts Princeton, #12 UCSD to Open Homestand
3/10/2026 12:55:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
CSUN THIS WEEK:
MATCH #16
Princeton Tigers (4-7) @Â #17Â CSUN Matadors (10-5)
Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2026Â - 6:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
Â
MATCH #17Â (BIG WEST #2)
#12 UC San Diego Tritons @ #17Â CSUN Matadors
Friday, Mar. 13, 2026Â - 6:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game XÂ updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
CSUNÂ Men's Volleyball Media Notes
FORÂ STARTERS
No. 17 CSUN (10-5, 0-1 Big West) opens up a season-long, four-match homestand on Wednesday, welcoming Princeton (4-7) to Premier America Credit Union Arena. Following Wednesday's non-conference match against the Tigers, the Matadors return to Big West play on Friday against No. 12 UC San Diego (10-7, 1-1). Both matches are scheduled for a 6 p.m. first serve. CSUN opened Big West play in La Jolla last week, falling in straight sets to the No. 11 Tritons at LionTree Arena.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Both matches this week will stream live on ESPN+ and will have live stats (links at GoMatadors.com). Darren Preston, who handles a majority of the play-by-play for CSUN home matches, will be on the call for both matches. Preston will be joined by Aquiles Montoya, CSUN Women's Volleyball head coach and former player at Grand Canyon, for select broadcasts.
Fans can also follow CSUN Matador men's volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www. GoMatadors.com for related links to the match, including any live stats, audio and video. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official X feed (@Â GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNMensVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
CSUNÂ REMAINSÂ 17TH IN LATESTÂ AVCAÂ MEN'S VOLLEYBALL POLL
After opening the season ranked 11th in the AVCA preseason poll, the Matadors (10-5) remained 17th for the fifth straight poll in this week's 10th National Collegiate Poll of the 2026 season. CSUN, which earned 238 points to rank 11th in the initial poll of the season, earned 105 points this week after falling in straight sets at No. 11 UC San Diego last week. The Matadors have now been ranked in all 10 polls in 2026. CSUN, which was ranked in all 18 polls last season, finished in the top 10 in the final poll of the 2025 season, the Matadors' first top 10 final ranking since 2018.Â
Since reclaiming a spot in the AVCA national poll in 2023, CSUN has been ranked in the top 20 for 45 consecutive polls and 55 of the last 58 AVCA national polls since the 2023 season. CSUN has been a fixture in the national polls historically, having previously been ranked in the AVCA Top-15 for 62 consecutive weeks and 262 of the last 289 weekly polls dating back to the 2002 season.Â
UCLA (16-0) remained the top-ranked team for the 10th straight week, collecting all 25 first-place votes and 500 total points. Long Beach State (12-2) remained second after receiving 469 points, followed by Hawai'i (15-2), UC Irvine (12-2), and USC (8-3). The remainder of this week's top 10 includes Pepperdine (11-4), BYU (15-4), Lindenwood (14-2), Loyola Chicago (11-5), and Ball State (16-3). The second half of this week's top-20 poll includes UC Santa Barbara (9-6), UC San Diego (10-6), McKendree (10-7), Lewis (12-7), Penn State (11-5), Ohio State (9-8), the Matadors (10-5), Stanford (7-8), Purdue Fort Wayne (9-6) and NJIT (11-6).
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Princeton (4-7) has won two straight including a five-set upset win at No. 12 UC San Diego on Monday. In earning their first road win of the season, the Tigers received 12 kills (.182) from senior Owen Mellon and won despite being out-hit .280 to .231. Mellon leads the team in kills per set, averaging 3.43 over 40 sets. Princeton, 0-3 in the EIVA, improved to 1-5 in road matches with the win at UCSD.Â
All-time series: Wednesday's match is the eighth meeting all-time between the Matadors and Princeton since the series began in 2015. CSUN leads 4-3 with four of the seven all-time meetings taking place in Northridge. The Matadors are 2-2 at home, 1-0 on the road, and 1-1 in neutral site matches against the Tigers.
No. 12 UC San Diego (10-7, 1-1 Big West) has lost two straight after opening the Big West season with a 3-0 win over the Matadors on Mar. 3. The Tritons opened Big West play with a split against CSUN (3-0) and UC Santa Barbara (2-3) last week before falling at home to Princeton in five sets on Monday. UCSD served a season-high 14 aces against the Tigers as Sebastiano Sani put down a match-high 18 kills in the loss.
All-time series: Friday's match is the 100th meeting all- time between the Matadors and UC San Diego. In the series that dates back to 1977, CSUN currently holds an 83-16 lead in the series. The Tritons swept CSUN in the first meeting last week at LionTree Arena in La Jolla which snapped a three-match Matador win streak. CSUN is 37-7 all-time against UCSD in Northridge but are just 3-4 at home against the Tritons in Big West matches.
PHILLIPS MAINTAINS BIG WEST KILLS LEAD
CSUN junior opposite Jalen Phillips, who took over as the Big West leader in kills per set one month ago, maintained the conference lead this week at 3.83 kps. With 153 kills over 40 sets, Phillips leads second-place Kainoa Wade of Hawai'i (3.72) and George Bruening of UC Santa Barbara (3.66). Phillips, who also leads the Big West points per set at 4.46, is eighth in hitting percentage (.338) and 18th in blocks per set (0.68). This week, he ranks 11th nationally in kills per set, 13th in points per set, 26th in hitting percentage, 37th in attacks per set (7.65), and 100th in blocks per set (0.68).
Phillips is quickly closing in on the CSUN Rally Scoring era top 10 in both kills and attempts. With 949 career kills (3.77 kps), he is just 29 kills away from Kevin McKniff (2007-10), and 10th place on the career kills. With 1,993 career attempts, he has moved past Joe Nargi (2001-03) into 10th place in career attempts. With 51 more kills this season, Phillips will become the 16th player in program history with 1,000 kills.
CSUN IN BIG WEST OPENERS
With last week's 3-0 loss at UC San Diego, the Matadors slipped to 20-28 (.417) all-time in conference season openers. CSUN is now 1-6 in Big West openers since 2018. The Matadors will look to snap a streak of four consecutive Big West home opening losses when they host UC San Diego on Friday. CSUN, 1-6 in seven previous Big West home openers, fell to No. 1 Long Beach State in straight sets to open the 2025 Big West home season.
CSUN IN THE BIG WEST STATS RANKINGS
In this week's Big West statistical rankings, the Matadors remained second in both kills per set at 12.71 and assists per set at 11.76. CSUN is also third this week in hitting percentage (.351), fourth in digs per set (7.63) and opponent hitting percentage (.219), fifth in points per set (15.96), and sixth in aces per set 1.31 and blocks per set (1.94).
Individually, in addition to Phillips, Jordan Lucas ranks sixth in hitting percentage (.367), 10th in kills per set (3.03), and 11th in points per set (3.38). Grayson Albers is 15th in aces per set (0.31) and 20th in points per set (2.46). Owen Douphner remains second in assists per set (9.84), and is also 18th in digs per set (1.28). With three kills on five errorless swings at UCSD, Albers maintained his season hitting percentage at .593. Albers which would lead the nation with enough attempts to qualify. UC Irvine's Trevor Clark is currently leading the nation at .569.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST Â
The 2026 season marks CSUN's ninth as a member of the Big West in men's volleyball. With a 0-1 regular season record in 2026, the Matadors are 18-53 (.254) in 71 Big West matches over eight-plus seasons since the conference's inaugural campaign in 2018. CSUN finished 5-5 in the first Big West season in 2018 before finishing 3-7 in 2019, 2024, and 2025, 2-8 in 2021, and 1-9 in both 2022 and 2023. Prior to 2018, the Matadors played 25 seasons as a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) from 1993-2017 and 16 seasons in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (WIVA) from 1977-92.
EDWARDS EARNS 50TH WIN AS CSUN HEAD COACH
Theo Edwards earned the 50th win of his CSUN career when the Matadors swept Edward Waters on Jan. 30. Edwards is in his fourth season as head coach in 2026 (16th season at CSUNÂ overall) after leading the Matadors back into the AVCA national rankings in his first three seasons. Named the successor to Jeff Campbell on Dec. 9, 2022, Edwards owns a career record of 53-48 (.525) in his fourth season. CSUN finished 12-16 in Edwards's first season (1-9 in the Big West) in 2023, and the Matadors have steadily improved in each of Edwards's three seasons. CSUN finished 13-16 in 2024 and 18-11 in 2025. Under Edwards' leadership, CSUN earned a No. 7 national ranking on Mar. 10 of the 2025 season, its highest national ranking in seven seasons. The Matadors finished the 2025 season with a No. 9 national ranking, also their best since 2018.
LOOKING AHEAD
Following Friday's match against No. 12 UC San Diego, CSUN closes out non-conference play against Jessup at home on Thursday (Mar. 19) before hosting No. 2 Long Beach State on Friday (Mar. 27) to wrap up the homestand.
#GoMatadors
