USC vs CSUN

[Vball818]

Good luck Matadors. I'm going to predict that CSUN will defeat USC in four tough games tonight.

Just wondering. How come Eric Kneubuhl is now the libero for CSUN?. I know he's one of the better passers and defense players for CSUN and was doing quite well as an outside hitter.

Articles on tonight's matches:

CSUN to face off with USC at Matadome tonight

Ivan Yeo
Issue date: 4/18/07

If it's mid-April, it must mean the CSUN Matador men's volleyball team is embarking on another postseason run.

For the sixth straight year, the Matadors will compete in the Mountain-Pacific Sports Federation playoffs. This year, Northridge, seeded seventh in the MPSF playoffs will start in its own confines, as it hosts the eighth-seeded USC Trojans at the Matadome in the play-in round tonight at 7 p.m.

"Its going to be nice," junior setter Travis Bluemling said. "It's going to be nice to come back for one last (home) game,"

Both teams should be quite familiar with each other by now, as the Matadors and Trojans faced each other just four days ago at USC's Lyon Center. The Matadors emerged victorious in four games, winning the first game 30-27 and recovering from a hard-fought game two loss in sudden death (33-31) to win the last games 30-18 and 30-27. Senior opposite Dan Rhodes led the way with a season-best 26 kills, while sophomore outside hitter Eric Vance had 13 kills. Juan Figueroa led the Trojans with 21 kills.

The first meeting at the Matadome back on Feb. 2 was no different from the most recent meeting, as the Matadors won the first game 30-28, then after losing the second game in sudden death (31-29), rebounded to win the last two games by scores of 30-27 and 30-21.

Senior middle blocker James Lischer was the main threat for the Matadors that night, as he smashed a game-high 19 kills.

Rhodes was not far behind with 17 kills. Freshman middle blocker Kevin McKniff knocked down 10 kills and Bluemling assisted 56 kills that night against the Trojans.

Throughout the year, the Matadome has been one of the loudest places on Earth for a men's volleyball game. The team has a record of 11-4 at home this season. The Matadors have received tremendous support from a variety of CSUN sports teams as well as the student body, and the players expect no different for tonight's game.

In fact, considering that its now playoff time, expect the noise at the Matadome to reach the "threshold of pain" category.

"Home is the best," junior Isaac Kneubuhl said. "Our fans are unbelievable. They're a huge reason why we win the games that we do, and it's just a treat for all of us."

The winner of Wednesday's match will head up to Provo, Utah to face the second-seeded BYU Cougars on Saturday evening.

The Matadors finished the season 11-11 in the MPSF, and finished 17-14 in overall play.


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Playoffs begin tonight for men's volleyball

USC will take on Cal State Northridge, a team the Trojans have lost to twice.

Joe Turner
Issue date: 4/18/07
Hitting the road for its first playoff match, the USC men's volleyball team will face a familiar opponent when it takes on Cal State Northridge Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs play-in game between the seventh- and eighth-seeded teams.

The No. 7 Matadors (17-14, 11-11) defeated the No. 12 Trojans (12-15, 9-13) twice this season, the most recent coming just five days ago in a match played at USC's Lyon Center.

Despite the losses, coach Bill Ferguson feels that playing Northridge close in two of the games Saturday can only help the team heading into the match.

"I imagine Northridge will come out a little bit different, but I think it was good to play them," Ferguson said. "We did some good things, and we feel good about how things are going to go."

In two of the four games Saturday, the Trojans struggled to contain the Matador's powerful serves, something the team will have to correct if it wishes to continue its season.

"First and third game, Eric Vance and primarily Dan Rhodes got on a big serving run," Ferguson said. "Sometimes in men's volleyball you get a guy that can just take over a game from the service line, and that's just what happened in those games."

Facing the Matadors on their home turf at the aptly coined "Matadome," Ferguson said these are games that you can only wish for as a team looking to step up to a challenge.

"Northridge is a great place to play," he said. "The fans are real close to the court, and they're pretty boisterous so I think it's going to be fun if you're a competitor. You're going to like it very much."

The winner will move on to face BYU in Provo, Utah, on Sunday in the MPSF tournament quarterfinals.

[Vball818]

[swingaway]

CSUN in 3

Great fans!!

[fanof2]

CSUN swept the Trojans 3-0. Trojans gave up a double digit lead late in the first game that must've cut their hearts out.

[volleyer6]

what was with figeroa? spatching balls so bad.

[swingaway]

Kneubuhl had his best game yet at Libero.
Gaudino was solid, smart and strong at the service line.
Vance was worse than Rhodes in Game 1 with 5 of his 7 match errors but kicked USC's tail from the service line.
Rhodes has always started slow but when he is on, he is the man.
Lischer is as good as any middle I've seen offensively.
The coach swapped for Waite and Pederson when down 11. Waite added some blocking and Pederson showed some good seletion.

The slow start will not be an option at BYU. CSUN should play a full practice set before the match so Rhodes knows it's time to play. Although no one will be surprised, I'm optimistic.

Go Matadors.

[swingaway]

April 18th 2007
Matadors Advance To MPSF Quarterfinals With 3-0 Sweep Over USC

Box Score

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - Senior Dan Rhodes overcame a shaky first game to fire a match-high 19 kills as seventh-seeded Cal State Northridge defeated eighth-seeded USC 36-34, 30-23, 30-28 in the MPSF Tournament Play-In match Wednesday night at The Matadome.

With the win, the Matadors improve to 18-14 and advance to Saturday’s MPSF Quarterfinal match at second-seeded BYU. The loss ends the Trojans’ season at 12-16.

Rhodes, who had just four kills and hit .067 in game one, knocked down 15 kills over the final two games to lead the Matadors. Sophomore Eric Vance added 14 kills (.219) and James Lischer chipped in 11 kills while hitting a team-high .429. Vance finished off his second double-double of the season with 10 digs and and also added three aces. Setter Sean Pedersen, who came on in relief of starter Travis Bluemling, recorded a match-high 43 assists as Northridge wound up hitting .264 as a team. Libero Isaac Kneubuhl also notched a team-high 11 digs in the win.

For USC, Juan Figueroa knocked down a team-high 15 kills but committed 11 hitting errors and was limited to an .089 hitting clip. C.J. Schellenberg added 11 kills (.214) and Matt Anderson also reached double figures in kills with 10 while hitting .409. Trojan setter Jimmy Killian registered 39 assists, seven digs and six blocks while libero Luke Morris tallied a match-high 15 digs.

Northridge out-hit USC by a slim .264 (56-23-125) to .226 (50-22-124) margin and had five aces to one for the Trojans. USC did post a 14.5 to 10.0 advantage in team blocks.

In what proved to be the pivitol game, the Matadors overcame an 11-point deficit to claim game one 36-34. After taking a slim 11-9 lead, the Trojans blew the game open by taking 12 of the next 15 points. A kill by Andrew Vernon gave USC another 11-point cushion at 24-13 before Northridge engineered a 6-0 run to close within 24-19. The Trojans built the lead back to seven at 27-20 after a Vance hitting error, but with Vance at the service line the Matadors put together a 7-0 run to knot the score at 27-27. USC scored the next two points before Northridge saved a pair of game points again tying the score, this time at 29-29. The Trojans fought off five game points before Pedersen and Lischer teamed up to block Hunter Current on game point.

The Matadors bounced back after hitting .130 in game one to hit .429 in the second frame. After USC held an early 3-2 lead, Northridge got a kill from Rhodes and a Killian setting error to take a 4-3 lead. From then on the Matadors would not trail again eventually stretching the lead to eight at 17-9 following a Lischer kill. The Trojans could not get the deficit under seven the rest of the way as the Matadors took a 2-0 lead following the 30-23 win.

In the decisive game three, both teams held a lead until Northridge tied things at 22-22 after a Vance kill. A Kyle Waite kill forced a Trojan timeout and a Schellenberg kill knotted the game for the final time at 23-23. The Matadors scored three of the next four points, capped by a Matt Mosko hitting error, to give them the cushion they would need as they closed out the game 30-28 and the match 3-0.

Cal State Northridge and BYU will meet in the MPSF Quarterfinals on Saturday at Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m PT

- GO MATADORS -

[swingaway]

USC | ATTACK | ASSIST | SERVE | | BLOCKING | RECEPT |
## Name GP| K E TA Pct| A E TA Pct| SA SE TA Pct|DIG BHE| BS BA BE| 0 RE Pct|POINTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Schellenberg, C.J... 3| 11 5 28 .214| 1 0 3 .333| 0 3 20 .850| 2 0| 0 2 0| 0 0 .000| 12.0
8 Vernon, Andrew...... 3| 8 3 14 .357| 1 0 2 .500| 0 1 8 .875| 1 0| 0 5 3| 0 0 .000| 10.5
13 Figueroa, Juan...... 3| 15 11 45 .089| 1 0 2 .500| 1 1 13 .923| 6 0| 0 3 1| 42 2 .955| 17.5
18 Killian, Jimmy...... 3| 3 0 3 1.000| 39 1 104 .375| 0 0 17 1.000| 7 0| 0 6 1| 1 0 1.000| 6.0
19 Current, Hunter..... 2| 0 1 3 -.333| 1 0 2 .500| 0 1 8 .875| 0 0| 0 1 0| 0 0 .000| 0.5
20 Anderson, Matt...... 3| 10 1 22 .409| 0 0 2 .000| 0 3 12 .750| 5 0| 0 5 0| 8 1 .889| 12.5
7 Morris, Luke........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 1 0 5 .200| 0 0 0 .000| 15 0| 0 0 0| 29 2 .935| 0.0
9 Hackett, Jonathan... 1| 0 0 1 .000| 0 0 0 .000| 0 0 0 .000| 0 0| 0 0 0| 0 0 .000| 0.0
11 Altamura, Gio....... 2| 0 0 0 .000| 0 0 0 .000| 0 0 2 1.000| 0 0| 0 0 0| 0 0 .000| 0.0
17 Mosko, Matt......... 2| 3 1 8 .250| 1 0 1 1.000| 0 3 6 .500| 2 0| 0 7 0| 1 0 1.000| 6.5
Totals.............. 3| 50 22 124 .226| 45 1 121 .372| 1 12 86 .860| 38 0| 0 29 5| 81 5 .942| 65.5

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.5
Game K E TA Pct
1 20 12 46 .174 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS
2 14 3 35 .314 USC................. (0) 34 23 28 12-16
3 16 7 43 .209 Cal State Northridge (3) 36 30 30 18-14

Cal State Northridge | ATTACK | ASSIST | SERVE | | BLOCKING | RECEPT |
## Name GP| K E TA Pct| A E TA Pct| SA SE TA Pct|DIG BHE| BS BA BE| 0 RE Pct|POINTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Lischer, James...... 3| 11 2 21 .429| 0 0 0 .000| 0 1 10 .900| 2 0| 1 3 1| 0 0 .000| 13.5
7 Rhodes, Dan......... 3| 19 10 46 .196| 0 0 0 .000| 0 3 13 .769| 8 0| 0 3 0| 5 0 1.000| 20.5
9 Bluemling, Travis... 1| 0 1 1-1.000| 6 0 19 .316| 0 0 2 1.000| 0 0| 0 0 0| 0 0 .000| 0.0
10 McKniff, Kevin...... 1| 2 0 3 .667| 0 0 0 .000| 0 0 1 1.000| 0 0| 0 0 0| 0 0 .000| 2.0
11 Gaudino, Mike....... 3| 6 2 14 .286| 2 0 8 .250| 2 2 13 .846| 6 0| 0 2 1| 32 0 1.000| 9.0
14 Vance, Eric......... 3| 14 7 32 .219| 1 0 3 .333| 3 1 25 .960| 10 0| 0 1 0| 5 1 .833| 17.5
1 Kneubuhl, Isaac..... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 1 0 9 .111| 0 0 0 .000| 11 0| 0 0 0| 31 0 1.000| 0.0
2 Pedersen, Sean...... 3| 1 0 3 .333| 43 1 82 .524| 0 1 8 .875| 9 1| 0 3 0| 0 0 .000| 2.5
5 Waite, Kyle......... 3| 3 1 5 .400| 0 0 3 .000| 0 1 16 .938| 2 0| 1 4 1| 0 0 .000| 6.0
6 Carter, Sean........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0 0 0 .000| 0 0 7 1.000| 0 0| 0 0 0| 0 0 .000| 0.0
15 Adams, Ryan......... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0 0 0 .000| 0 0 0 .000| 0 0| 0 0 0| 0 0 .000| 0.0
Totals.............. 3| 56 23 125 .264| 53 1 124 .427| 5 9 95 .905| 48 1| 2 16 3| 73 1 .986| 71.0

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 10.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 16 10 46 .130 Site: Northridge, Calif. (The Matadome)
2 22 4 42 .429 Date: Apr 18, 2007 Attend: 396 Time: 1:38
3 18 9 37 .243 Referees: Larry Schwartz, Kim Pickering
2007 MPSF Tournament Play-In Match
Cal State Northridge advances to the Quarterfinals
and will travel to second-seed BYU on Sat, Apr. 21



Not sure where theses attendence numbers came from. This may have been the biggest crowd of the year and the students were LOUD.