UCSD @ CSUN - Matadors win in three

[Rocky]

From the CSUN website:

Nielsen, Waite Lead Fourth-Ranked Matadors to 3-0 Sweep of UC San Diego


NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - Nils Nielsen and Brian each knocked down a team-high 14 kills and fourth-ranked Cal State Northridge defeated UC San Diego, 30-28, 30-25, 30-27 in MPSF action Friday at Wells Fargo Court.

With the win, the Matadors improve to 3-2 overall and even their MPSF record at 1-1. The Tritons slip to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in conference.

Nielsen and Waite were the only CSUN hitters to reach double figures in kills and both hit at a high percentage all night. Waite hit .542 (14-1-24), while Nielsen hit .520 (14-1-25) and the Matadors hit .349 (52-14-109) as a team. Dan Rhodes added nine kills and a team-high eight digs while setter Jeff Conover posted 41 assists, five digs and four blocks.

Luke Honnette knocked down a match-high 15 kills to lead UC San Diego, which also got 10 kills off the bench from Brendan Bowe. Honnette posted the double-double by adding 10 digs and Triton libero Dickens Tai dug a match-high 13 balls.

CSUN had a tough time shaking the Tritons all match long as the Matadors needed late runs in each game to take the victory. In game one, CSUN used a mini 4-1 run at 16-16 to take a 20-17 lead on a pair of UCSD miscues and kills from Nielsen and Rhodes. The Tritons would pull to within one eight more times down the stretch, the last at 29-28 before a Waite kill ended the game. The Matadors looked to have game two in hand holding a 19-13 lead after a Waite kill. But with Honnette serving, UCSD ran off six straight points to knot the score at 19-19. The teams remained tied at 23-23 before CSUN won four of the next five points to pull away, eventually taking game two 30-25. The Matadors jumped out to a 15-10 lead in game three only to see the Tritons once again battle back to tie the score at 16-16. The score would be tied four more times, the last at 26-26 before CSUN got kills from Isaac Kneubuhl and Matt Bellante, a Honnette hitting error and a Triton service error to close out the game and the match.

Cal State Northridge opens a stretch of four straight road matches on Wednesday, Jan. 19 as the Matadors travel to sixth-ranked Hawai'i.

- GO MATADORS -

UC San Diego | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 REUTER, Mike........ 2| 3 4 12 -.083| 1| 0 1| 0| 5| 0 0 0| 0| 3.0
6 RUSCH, Adam......... 2| 6 0 10 .600| 0| 0 1| 0| 0| 0 2 0| 0| 7.0
12 DANLEY, Reuben...... 2| 3 2 12 .083| 0| 0 2| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 3.0
15 HONNETTE, Luke...... 3| 15 5 33 .303| 1| 1 0| 2| 10| 0 1 0| 0| 16.5
20 DIERDORFF, Brooks... 3| 2 0 2 1.000| 30| 0 4| 0| 6| 0 1 1| 2| 2.5
21 WENDLER, John Mark.. 3| 7 2 12 .417| 0| 0 1| 0| 2| 0 2 0| 0| 8.0
2 HARDY, Russ......... 3| 4 3 9 .111| 1| 0 2| 0| 0| 0 3 0| 0| 5.5
4 TAI, Dickens........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 2| 0 0| 0| 13| 0 0 0| 1| 0.0
9 SEXTON, Joe......... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
11 JONES, Nate......... 1| 0 1 1-1.000| 11| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
13 BOWE, Brendan....... 2| 10 1 17 .529| 0| 0 2| 0| 3| 0 3 2| 0| 11.5
24 SMITH, Garret....... 1| 1 1 6 .000| 0| 1 1| 0| 0| 0 1 0| 0| 2.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 3| 51 19 114 .281| 46| 2 14| 2| 39| 0 13 3| 3| 59.5

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 6.5
Game K E TA Pct
1 20 4 39 .410 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS
2 15 9 43 .140 UC San Diego........ 28 25 27 0-2, 0-1
3 16 6 32 .312 Cal State Northridge 30 30 30 3-2, 1-1

Cal State Northridge | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Kneubuhl, Isaac..... 3| 4 6 19 -.105| 1| 0 2| 0| 5| 0 0 0| 0| 4.0
2 Nielsen, Nils....... 3| 14 1 25 .520| 1| 0 2| 0| 7| 0 4 0| 0| 16.0
3 Lischer, James...... 1| 2 1 6 .167| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 1| 0| 2.0
4 Waite, Brian........ 3| 14 1 24 .542| 0| 1 2| 0| 1| 0 7 0| 0| 18.5
6 Conover, Jeff....... 3| 2 1 4 .250| 41| 0 0| 0| 5| 0 4 0| 1| 4.0
7 Rhodes, Dan......... 3| 9 4 20 .250| 1| 0 4| 0| 8| 0 2 0| 1| 10.0
8 Hanson, Cary........ 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 1| 2| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
10 Bellante, Matt...... 3| 7 0 11 .636| 0| 1 1| 0| 1| 0 3 0| 0| 9.5
11 Pedraza, Sebastian.. 2| 0 0 0 .000| 2| 0 0| 1| 5| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 3| 52 14 109 .349| 46| 2 11| 2| 34| 0 20 1| 2| 64.0

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 17 4 39 .333 Site: Northridge, Calif. (Wells Fargo Court)
2 15 5 39 .256 Date: Jan 14, 2005 Attend: 147 Time: 1:32
3 20 5 31 .484 Referees: John Martin, Marvin Hall

[perspixx]

The games shouldn't have been that close. I can now understand people thinking CSUN was rated too high, if they struggled that much at home with UCSD.

[sjhaysuess]

It wasn't really a struggle. They just didn't play at their level until the last 5 points of each game.

[roy]

According to the newspapers in Hawaii, a couple of the big guns for CSUN are injuried. They are still playing but they are not 100%.

[sjhaysuess]

Carey Hansen has not played the whole season so far. Well I lied, he played libero in the 3rd game against UCSD hehe. Sebastian Pedraza(our libero) will have to leave Hawaii after the first match due to some personal issues. Dan Rhodes also has some serious wrist problems that he'll hopefully be able to play through.

[beachdude]

Has anyone thought that UCSD might be a pretty good team? I guess we missed that one. Time will tell.

BD

[swingaway]

Hansen and Rhodes have both been playing injured all year. Hansen did play games 3,4 and 5 against LB but was not effective offensively.

The Hawaii web site listed last year as a sweep for Hawaii yet it was CSUN who swept the 2 matches last year.

It's going to be a tough year without Hansen and Rhodes healthy. Maybe the sun and beach in Hawaii will help the recovery.

[perspixx]

I would think having those guys healthy would be necessary for CSUN to make any runs at a good finish this year. I'm not a volleyball expert, but I can guess it's not a great thing when a starting OH on the men's team is shorter than a starting OH on the women's team...

UCSD was blocking a lot of CSUN's outside attacks. But CSUN looks like they have a solid rotation in the middle, though.

UCSD's libero looks like he's 5'2", but he was all over the place making great digs and passes the entire match.

[swingaway]

Isaac Kneubuhl starts because he is a very good, very smart VBplayer. Even with everyone healthy this RS Freshman would likely be starting. Quick, smart and high can be very succesful as an men's outside.