CSUN over UCSB

[volleyfred]

fingrbustr said:

Lischer should find room on one of the AA teams. I think the voting consensus is that Campbell turns out good MBs.

I agree.

[swingaway]

robonthemic said:

That's a great win for CSUN. Waite played well against UCI this last weekend. It appears that he's taking advantage of the PT he's now getting.

My question is, "What's happening to UCSB?" I saw them earlier in the season and they just seemed unstoppable. When vtalkers were referring to the Gauchos as UC Patak they couldn't have been more correct. All they needed was mediocre play from the other players combined with the play of Patak and it would seem like they were contendors. I'm just curious as to others' thoughts on this.

Can't speak to their previous games, but CSUN is all that happened to UCP last night. UCSB hit hit.378 as a team but CSUN hit .430 UCP had 24 serve errors but CSUN had 27. CSUN showed what we all new was there. Pederson did a great job mixing up the sets. Still making the freshman mistakes but if he continues to get court time, he will be very good.

I was most surprised at Campbell. He actually seamed relaxed. Players did not get pulled for 1 or 2 mistakes and it allowed the team to stay in rhythm.

Go Matadors!

[Vball818]

Men’s Volleyball
Matadors Lasso Slumping Gauchos
Patak Dominates Statistics But Santa Barbara Falls to Northridge
By Kip Hanson / Staff Writer

Published Thursday, March 1, 2007

Issue 85 / Volume 87


Konina Biswas / Daily Nexus

Senior opposite Evan Patak smoked Northridge for four match- highs, totalling 27 kills, six aces, eight digs and five blocks.
The hard-luck #4 Gauchos continued their downward spiral last night, extending their first losing streak of the season to three games as they dropped a 3-1 decision to #11 Northridge.

After jumping out of the gates with a 30-23 victory in game one, wherein the team trailed only after the first point of the match, Santa Barbara (12-6 overall, 10-5 MPSF) surrendered dominance in game two by losing by the same mark.

“[In game one] we were passing well and they were missing lots of serves; we just sided out really well,” said junior outside hitter Michael Fisher. “But after missing those serves, they came back in the next three games and were serving pretty well - really well compared to that first game.”

In game three, the Gauchos took the first point, but mirroring their game one performance, the Matadors (9-9 overall, 7-6 MPSF) would strike back to take a lead they would never again relinquish. Game four stood tied at 21, but that was as close as the Gauchos would get to forcing a fifth and final game. Twice they cut the lead to one at 26-25 and 27-26, but a couplet of Gaucho errors and an ace from service at match point from the Matadors’ sophomore Eric Vance ended the night.

The win for the Northridge put an end to its two-game skid and showcased the dynamic play of senior opposite Dan Rhodes. Rhodes, who just returned from an ankle injury two games ago in Los Angeles, put up his most dominant match offensively of the season against Northridge, hitting .444 on the night and finished with 25 kills.

“There were some question marks [going in, like] whether Rhodes would be healthy, but he was healthy and he was playing well,” Fisher said. “They served well and we didn’t; we served very conservatively.”

The three game slide and the team’s most recent loss will undoubtedly effect Santa Barbara’s poll position and possibly remove them from the country’s top five for the first time since January 14.

Fisher attributed much of the team’s demise to conservative play from the service line.

“We’re in a slump right now, so we need to believe in ourselves and man up, especially in practice and at the service line,” he said. “We need to be more aggressive and unified on the court.”

Senior opposite Evan Patak led the UCSB effort with 27 kills and a .489 hitting percentage.

The team returns to action this Friday and Saturday nights against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne.

“It’s more about our game [than about Indiana-Purdue],” Fisher said. “[By Friday] we’ll know their game and what we need to do to contain them, but most of all we need to serve more aggressively.”



Northridge upsets fourth-ranked Gauchos
Ivan Yeo
Posted: 3/5/07

Back with a bang!

Exactly a week after injuring his ankle against UCLA, Senior opposite Dan Rhodes returned for the 11th ranked CSUN Matador men's volleyball team's matchup with the fourth-ranked UC Santa Barbara Gauchos at the Matadome Wednesday night, and Rhodes delivered with 25 kills and a .444 hitting percentage, as the Matadors upset the Gauchos in four games by scored of 23-20, 30-23, 30-27 and 30-26.

"One or two plays' I tweaked it a little bit, but it wasn't bad," Rhodes said of his ankle. "It felt good throughout the match."

Rhodes wasn't the only Matador to shine against the Gauchos. Sophomore outside hitter Eric Vance had 16 kills while hitting .414 while freshman setter Sean Pederson had 51 set assists. Evan Patak was a one-man wrecking crew for the Gauchos, as he smashed 27 kills while hitting .489.

"The team was really connecting," Pederson said. "We we're connecting in every part of the field."

The Gauchos jumped on the Matadors early in the match, winning four of the first five sets. CSUN eventually got in the game and kept Santa Barbara in their sights, getting to within a point of UCSB several times. The Matadors trailed 11-10 until the Gauchos won the next three sets to build a three-point lead. Rhodes stopped the run, but Santa Barbara then won three of the next four sets to take a 17-12 lead and force a Northridge timeout. The Matadors took advantage of several Gaucho serve miscues to win three of next four sets, but the Gauchos again ran off three straight sets to lead 21-15 and force another Matador timeout. Santa Barbara kept Northridge in its rear view mirror, leading 26-18 at one point, but CSUN won three straight sets to cut the lead to 26-21, forcing a Gaucho timeout. UCSB wasn't fazed though, as it first traded the next four sets with CSUN and David Kennedy smashed two straight kills to end game one.

Santa Barbara again started out hot in game two, winning three of the first four sets, but this time, Northridge answered early, winning three straight sets to take a 4-3 lead. CSUN hung on to the lead until UCSB ripped off three straight sets to take an 8-6 lead. Rhodes stopped that run, but Kennedy went off a pair of Matador blockers for a point and Patak followed suit on the next set to give Santa Barbara a 10-7 lead. The Gauchos increased its lead to 13-10, but the Matadors got the ball back on a service error, Rhodes aced on the ensuing set and James Lischer went off a pair of Gaucho blockers to tie the game at 13, forcing a UCSB timeout. The Gauchos got the ball back on a net serve, but Vance crossed a spike to the right side of Santa Barbara territory and a hit by Patak found the net, putting Northridge back in front. CSUN led 17-16 until the Gauchos won three straight sets to lead 19-17, forcing a Matador timeout. Northridge won three of the next four sets to tie the game at 20, Patak again went of a pair of Matador blockers to give the Gauchos the lead, but the Matadors caught fire, winning the next five sets to take a 25-21 lead, forcing a Santa Barbara timeout. That five-point spurt was all the Matadors needed, as they went on to win game two.

The last two matches were close all the way, though it was the Matadors that played the role of aggressor throughout. In game three, CSUN led by no more than two points and spent most of game three trading points with UCSB. The Matadors led 17-16 until Rhodes went off a pair of Gaucho blockers for consecutive kills to give the Matadors a 19-16 lead, forcing a Santa Barbara timeout. Northridge was in control from there on, leading by as many as four on their way to the win.

Game four was more of the same, with the Matadors holding the lead throughout and the Gauchos doing its best to stay with them. CSUN led 19-17 until a Matador attack went into the net and Patak and Kennedy denied Rhodes' hit to tie the game and force a Matador timeout. Northridge got the two points back when Lischer went off a pair of Gaucho blockers and Sean Carter aced a serve. The Gauchos answered with consecutive points only to see the Matadors again win the two points back when Vance and junior outside hitter Isaac Knuebuhl went off Gaucho defenders for kills for force a Santa Barbara timeout and Rhodes spiked the ball into open Gaucho territory following the break to give Northridge a 24-21 lead, a lead it never relinquished.

"Everyone was going for it and having a good time," Rhodes said. "It worked out real well tonight."

Northridge hit .430 throughout the match. The Matadors hit only .179 in the first game, but ratchet up its percentage the final three games, hitting .469 in game two, .543 in game three and an even .500 in the game.

"Our hitting was much better than it's been," head coach Jeff Campbell said. "We definitely executed a lot better than we've been playing recently."

CSUN continued its five-game home stand against the Cal Baptist Lancers last Friday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2007 Daily Sundial