CSUN @ Pepperdine

[swingaway]

CSUN is playing well and now believes they can win. A faster offense will be needed to get through the strong Waves block. In 2 of the losses in their last meeting, the teams were within 1 or tied past 20-20. If the Matadors don't fade, they can pull out another thriller.

Go Matadors!!!



www.gomatadors.com/mvolleyball_details.php?news_id=02044

[csunalumn]

I think CSUN has a great chance against Pep. They are on a high after that amazing game at UCLA and they are really focused for the playoffs. They have already turned heads by beating UCLA I think this is their year. They have great leadership with their two seniors Nielson and Conover and Pep has had a little trouble in the playoffs the past couple of years. I think Thursday night is gonna be an exciting game!

[Vball818]

In less than an hour the Matadors take on the Waves.

I hope they'll be fired-up...no, I take that back CSUN will be fired-up to defeat the Waves. They gotta be if they want their season to continue. I'm sure they're not satisfied with last weeks victory against UCLA. If they played gritty, don't quit and most of all stay focused - they have a very good chance of defeating the tall Waves.

Good luck Matadors!

[Vball818]

From CSUN campus newspaper, Daily Sundial

The CSUN men's volleyball team(19-13) will travel to Malibu tonight to face top-ranked Pepperdine(20-2) at 5:00 p.m. in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament final four.

The winner will play the winner of the match between UC Santa Barbara(16-13) and Long Beach State(21-9) for the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Final Four.

The Matadors have played great the past few weeks leading to the upcoming match with the Waves, upsetting No. 2 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion to advance in the playoffs. The Matadors won their first ever home playoff game the week before against Stanford, which was also their first playoff win since 1996, when they reached the semifinals.

The Matadors also picked up some individual honors with outside hitter NIls Nielsen being named a Third Team selection on the 2005 All-MPSF Men's Volleyball Team. Brian Waite was also given an honorable mention at the middle-blocker spot.

"It's fantastic to be named to the (All-MPSF) team," said Nielsen, who leads the Matadors in kills per game averaging 4.06 with 921 totatl attacks. "I have always been named honorable mention, so it's kind of nice to end on a high note, and that's what I feel like I'm doing."

"Beating UCLA is the best memory of my career as of now playing at UCLA," Nielsen said. "But the coolest thing was that it was a team effort. I did not do anyting in the fifth game, it was everyone else that really stepped it up. A real team effort, which was great."

The Matadors will be facing a highly-decorated Waves team, starting with senior outside hitter Sean Rooney, who was named the 2005 MPSF player of the year and was also named all-First Team player. Setter Jonathan Winder was named freshman of the year.

Rooney is averaging 5.30 kills per game while Winder is averaging 13.59 assists per game. The Waves also had middle blcoker Andy Heing anmed to the all MPSF second team, and Jon Mayer earning a pot on the all MPSF third team.

"Rooney had a good year(and) Winder was one of several good freshman in the league," said Waves head coach Marv Dunphy, the MPSF Coach of the Years, in his 22nd season.

"I'm not big on individual awards ina team sports," Dunphy said. "It's nice for them to be recognized by the people in their sport for doing well, but it's pretty low-key around here. We never have talked about it, and as long as I'm here we never will. We try to do well as a team."

Pepperdine has onwd the Matadors, winning 40 of the 55 encounters between the teams since 1978. Under coach Jeff Campbell's eight-year reign, the Matadors are 1-17 against Pepperdine.

The Matadors last defeated the Waves 3-2 at Northridge on Feb. 13, 2004, and have not claimed victory on the Pepperdine campus since Feb. 20 1996 when they won 3-1.

"We are going to fine tune our offense," Campbell said. We just need to pass and serve. That's the most important thing for us to be successful. We have to serve well to keep Pepperdine on their heels."

Some of the Matadors will ook to achieve their personal best again against the Waves. James Lisher had a season-best 25 kill attempts against the Waves April 15. In the same game, Waited had a personal best with four aces.

The last time Pepperdine played competitive volleyball was the April 15 game against the Matadors, in which they won 3-1 at Northridge. In the game, the Matadors jumped out to a six-point lead int he first game only to relax and see Pepperdine capture the lead and then the game.

The Matadors were able to win game two before losing games three and four. On that evening the Waves earned 23.5 blocks, caugings the Matadors to ahve 146 attempts and hitting a paltry .123 compared to the Waves, who had a 130 attack attempts and hit .285. The Matadors only mustered seven blocks in the loss.

"Rooney is the best player in the country," said Matador setter Jeff Conver, who's averaging 12.45 assists per game. "So we have to respect him, we have to try to stop him and have Sebastian(Pedraza) dig as many balls as he can."

"We will run a more sophisticated offense," Covover said. "To keep themm on their toes since they have really big blockers, keeping them moving so they can't blcock us like they did last time."

The Matadors have had their most success this season when winning game one or leading the match in kills, blocks, digs or attack percentage.

The Waves ended the Matadors season last year in the MPSF tournament by winning 3-0(30-25, 30-27, 30-27) and in the 2002 MPSF tournament 3-0(30-18, 30-25, 31-29).

The MPSF final four was set when Long Beach State beat fourth sedded Hawai'i 3-1 in Honolulu, and the Gauchos knoicked off defending MPSF and NCAA champion BYU, 3-2 in Provo, Utah.

[Vball818]

Well for those who aren't listening on the Web or watching the scores on Game Tracker, the Waves won the first game 32-30.

CSUN outside hitters aren't doing to well. Hope they shake it off and play well in the next three games.

C'mon Matadors!

[Vball818]

Hmmm - things are not looking to well for CSUN.

Pepperdine won again 30-27.

[OC4]

CSUN wins the 3rd 30-28

[OC4]

incredibly low hitting numbers for Pepperdine, .167 in game 2, and .196 in game 3... CSUN stepped it up to .267 in game 3 to win it. Currently 8-6 Pepperdine on an attack error by Kneubuhl

[OC4]

12-9 Pepperdine... Canover has had 2 bad set calls in the last few points.

[OC4]

16-12 Pepp... CSUN calls timeout after getting aced by Rooney

[OC4]

and Pepperdine wraps up a 3-1 win over CSUN with a win of game 4 30-19... CSUN really fell apart after that 16-12 ace. Nielsen had a terrible night. Tough for CSUN when the guy that carried you through the last 2 wins doesn't show up against Pepp.

[Vball818]

Pepperdine won 30-19

Won in 4 games.

CSUN just dug themselves too deep to get out of a rut in this game. Mistake, mistakes, mistakes. Pepperdine on the other hand - just played their game.

I'm proud of you Matadors!

[Rocky]

I posted this on the Long Beach / UCSB thread also since it is about both matches tonight:

Of the four teams I saw play tonight I would have to rank them in the following order:

1) Long Beach
2) Pepperdine
3) Cal State Northridge
4) UC Santa Barbara

Pepperdine was beatable tonight and CSUN just did not get the job done. Giving credit to Dunphy and his scouting, they neutralized Nils. CSUN came close in the first two games and were leading at the end of both only to lose both. Had CSUN pulled off either of those games it could have been a completely different match. Unfortunately, they did not and the lost in four (the fourth game was really ugly). Congrats to the Waves.

Long Beach played a solid match tonight. Tyler H. did indeed put on a clinic. He had a great supporting cast and LB's passing played a big part in the win. The whole team looked relaxed and they got the job done. LB did a great job to neutralize Patak tonight as well. UCSB turned to the bench to sub out their setter and to sub out Patak at one point. Preston was trying to find some combination to work. I felt sorry for some of the subs who came in as serving specialists only to serve the ball right into the net. The UCSB / LB fans were also interesting to watch. They were very energetic. Congrats to Long Beach for a well played match tonight. Don't be surprised if they beat Pepperdine on Saturday (without Pepperdine "throwing" the match).

As far as NCAA final four predictions go - if you look for teams that are playing the best right now it would be Long Beach and Pepperdine. I would even put Northridge's play right now better than UCLA. I do not believe UCLA should be in the final four. If LB wins the MPSF on Saturday Pepperdine should receive the at large bid. If Pepperdine wins on Saturday I hope the committee considers Long Beach for the at large bid.

Again, congrats to Pepperdine and Long Beach. Good luck to both on Saturday. It should be a great match and will probably go 5 games.

Lastly, nice job this season Matadors. It was fun watching you guys play this year. You had a year of many changes, but once you guys figured out a final line-up you played well and with so much heart. I look forward to next year. Good bye and good luck to Nils Nielsen and Jeff Conover.

[sistahsledge]

Pepperdine played well enough to win but definitely did not bring their "A" game tonight. But they hadn't played a match in almost two weeks.

There's been talk on this board of the possibility of Pepp backing off or even throwing their upcoming match against LBSU. That is such a ridiculous notion. Pepp needs to ramp their game UP right now. There's no way that Dunphy would bench his starters or tell them to hold back because they need to get their match toughness back.

[bigfan]

sistahsledge said:

Pepperdine played well enough to win but definitely did not bring their "A" game tonight. But they hadn't played a match in almost two weeks.

That explains why they had no rythmn or flow. I was wondering how they could be so out of it. Not a good time of year to have an extensive break in the the schedule. No National Championship for them if they do not step it up.