From June 17 to August 9, GoMatadors.com will present the top CSUN Moments from the 2023-24 sports season. Today, we celebrate the Matador men’s volleyball team posting four upset wins over nationally-ranked teams in 2024, three of the four wins coming on the road.
Even more impressive was that three of the four wins over national powerhouses in men’s collegiate volleyball came on the road. The Matadors won at No. 2 Hawai’i (Mar. 23), No. 4 Stanford (Feb. 3), and No. 11 USC (Jan. 24), while defeating No. 3 UC Irvine at home on Mar. 29.
“I think those are really special moments and I feel like those wins were stamps on our season,” said head coach Theo Edwards. “When I look back as a coach, it really gave some justification to the amount of work all the guys on this team put in during the season. It was the first time we won in Hawai’i in 11 years and many, many top-ranked teams travel to Honolulu every season and very few are able to come away with wins in that environment.”
In picking up its first conference win of the season on Mar. 23, CSUN won in Honolulu for the first time since 2013. Redshirt freshman Jalen Phillips had a team-high 17 kills while senior Griffin Walters matched his season-high with 15 kills as the Matadors defeated a No. 2-ranked team in the AVCA Top-15 Poll for the first time since 2019. CSUN’s pin hitters were effective all match long as Phillips, Walters, and Kyle Hobus combined for 43 kills while hitting a combined .360. Phillips hit .355 on a team-high 31 swings while Walters hit .379 on 29 attacks, and Hobus had 11 kills on .346 hitting to go with a pair of aces. Middle Jano Tello chipped in seven kills on 10 errorless attacks to hit .700.
Behind setter’s Donovan Constable 46 assists, CSUN had 54 kills while hitting .387 to the Rainbow Warriors’ .240. The Matadors also had an 11.5 to 10.5 edge in blocks while Hawai’i had slight advantages in aces (6-5) and digs (32-26).
After upsetting No. 2 Hawai’i in Honolulu on Mar. 23, the Matadors returned to the mainland and handed No. 3 UCI its first Big West loss on Mar. 29. Hobus continued his impressive hitting of late, connecting at a .342 clip on 38 swings. The senior outside also had three of CSUN’s four aces while matching his season-high with six blocks. Phillips also reached double figures in kills with 14 kills (.294) while adding a season-high eight digs and a pair of blocks.
Reining Big West Offensive Player of the Week Constable posted his third career double-double with 47 assists and a match-high 12 digs while leading the CSUN hitters to a .277 clip (50-19-112). The Matador block helped limit UCI to a season-low .117 team hitting clip (45-30-128) as CSUN held the Big West’s leading hitter, Hilir Henno to 13 kills on .024 hitting. Freshman Nir Eitan and Constable each had a match-high seven blocks, each posting one solo stuff.CSUN would top a pair of top-three nationally ranked teams in the same season for the first time since 2010.
Ranked 17th on Feb. 3, CSUN posted its first win over an AVCA top-five team in four years as the Matadors upset No. 4 Stanford in four sets in a non-conference match at Maples Pavilion. CSUN had three players with double figure led by Hobus who put down a match-high 22 kills, hitting .415 on 41 swings. Hobus also added five digs, three blocks, and one ace while freshman Phillips added 19 kills on 34 attacks to hit .412. Phillips also scooped up a season and match-high eight digs to go with two blocks. Walters chipped in 11 kills (.333), five digs and one ace.
Constable had 52 assists in leading the Matador hitters to a .383 hitting clip. Constable also posted six digs, four blocks, and a pair of aces in the win. CSUN had 60 team kills to 38 for Stanford which hit .264 as a team. One night after being out-aced 10-1, the Matadors had five service aces on Saturday to four for the Cardinal. CSUN also posted edges in blocks (9.5-6.0) and digs (31-28).
Behind a combined 37 kills from Hobus and Phillips, the 18th-ranked Matadors upset No. 11 USC in five sets in a non-conference match on Jan. 24 at the Galen Center. In handing the Trojans their first home loss of the season, Hobus pounded a match-high 23 kills on 43 swings to hit .395. The senior also had five digs, three blocks, and one ace. Phillips, the reigning Big West Freshman of the Week, added 14 kills (.379), two aces, two digs, and a pair of blocks. Walters chipped in eight kills (.182), three aces, and three digs.
CSUN overcame a slow start to hit .345 (56-17-113) as a team to .272 (48-20-103) for the host Trojans. The Matadors also posted slight edges in aces (9-7) and blocks (9.0-7.5) while USC had 33 team digs to CSUN’s 26.
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