CSUN Ends Nation's Longest Win Streak
March 7, 2016 MPSF Volleyball Release 9
CSUN (5-7 MPSF/12-7 Overall) picked up an impressive 3-1 non-conference road win at No. 6 Penn State (Mar. 4), snapping the Nittany Lions' then longest win streak in the nation at 11 matches, dating to January 14. After dropping set one, the Matadors pulled out a 39-37 second set, the longest set played by an MPSF team this year. Jakub Ciesla (19 kills/10 digs) and Dimitar Kalchev (16 kills/10 digs) each tallied double-doubles. Josiah Byers hit .455 with 12 kills. CSUN also swept Mount Olive while in University Park, PA, as setter Sam Porter guided a season-high .492 team hitting attack. Entering the week in seventh, the Matadors host Hawaii for two (Mar. 11-12), and are one match up on the Warriors in the loss column.
STANFORD (13-2 MPSF/15-2 Overall) James Shaw had 38 assists and set the Cardinal to a .432 hitting attack in a three-set win at Pepperdine Sunday (Mar. 6). In the first set, Stanford fought through 28 ties and a 24-22 deficit to win 32-30, staying unbeaten in the opening frame this year (17-0). Madison Hayden had 11 kills with a .391 clip. Winners of its last eight matches, Stanford enters the week in first-place by one-half match in the win column, and hosts Pepperdine Saturday (Mar. 12).
BYU (12-2 MPSF/16-2 Overall) pulled to within one-half match of first-place in the win column with a two-match series win at Hawaii, 3-0 and 3-1 (Mar. 2-4). The Cougars ran their overall win streak to a national-best 12 straight matches, along with 35 consecutive sets before Friday's four-set outcome. Ben Patch accumulated a series-high 39 kills (5.57 k/s) while hitting .456. He had a 2016 three-set match MPSF-high 22 kills (.700) in the first win. Price Jarman totaled 15 blocks (2.14 b/s) in the seven sets. BYU hit .362 for the series, and racked up 28 blocks (4.00 b/s).
UCLA (13-3 MPSF/17-3 Overall) won a two-match home and road series last week over UC Santa Barbara, 3-1 in Wooden Center and 3-0 in Rob Gym (Mar. 2-4). Jake Arnitz had Bruin-highs each night, 13 kills (.385) at home and 12 kills (.364) on the road. He added 10 digs in the four-set win for a double-double. UCLA is one-half match from first-place, and holds a four-match lead for top-four positioning in search of an MPSF quarterfinal home match.
LONG BEACH STATE (12-2 MPSF/17-2 Overall) won two matches in University Park, PA, 3-1 over No. 6 Penn State (Mar. 4) and 3-0 over Mount Olive. (Mar. 5). TJ DeFalco accumulated 21 kills, 10 digs, two aces, and six blocks vs. Penn State. The 49ers host MIVA schools Ohio State and Lewis this week.
UC IRVINE (5-11 MPSF/6-12 Overall) won a two-match series with UC San Diego last week, 3-0 at home and 3-2 on the road. Kyle Russell had 22 kills and three aces, followed by David Parker with a career-high 17 kills and nine digs in the five-setter. Jason Agopian added a career-high 14 kills. In the home win, setter Dante Chakravorti guided UCI to .405 hitting, led by Agopian's errorless .889 (8-0-9). Russell had a match-high 15 kills and Dillon Hoffman recorded a career-high 13 digs.
PEPPERDINE (7-6 MPSF/8-6 Overall) hit .379 and fought off a two-set deficit to win at UC San Diego in five last Wednesday (Mar. 2). David Wieczorek recorded a career-high 19 kills with a .485 clip. Mitchell Penning hit .625 on 10 for an errorless 16, and Matt Tarantino tallied 12 kills, nine digs, and seven blocks. Still nine to play in the MPSF, the Waves host Cal Baptist Thursday (Mar. 10).
CAL BAPTIST (4-12 MPSF/9-12 Overall) Roy Powell came off the bench to record 17 kills (.394) and five blocks in lifting the Lancers to a five-set win at USC (Mar. 5). Middles Jackson Burge (9-0-17, .529) and Enrique Garcia (8-0-17, .471) were both errorless. CBU hit .750 (13-1-16) in the fifth set to seal the win, erasing a one-set deficit early on. Libero Emmett Enriques accumulated 26 digs (3.25 d/s) in the two-match series, including a career-high 17 (3.40 d/s) in the win.
USC (4-12 MPSF/4-14 Overall) Lucas Yoder had 18 kills while hitting .441 in a straight-set win at Cal Baptist (Mar. 2). In the second match vs. the Lancers at home, Woody Cook tallied 14 kills at .370 in his second career start. Jon Rivera had 11 kills at .421 off the bench.
UC SANTA BARBARA (9-7 MPSF/13-8 Overall) Jacob Delson had team-highs of nine kills and three aces at home vs. UCLA (Mar. 4), and a match-high 16 kills in Westwood (Mar. 2). The Gauchos have six to play in the conference, holding the five spot by percentage points over Pepperdine.
HAWAII (5-9 MPSF/10-9 Overall) Siki Zarkovic totaled 28 kills (4.00 k/s) and Kolby Kanetake collected a series-high 23 digs (3.29 d/s) in the two home matches vs. BYU. The Warriors head to CSUN for two this week (Mar. 11-12). Hawaii enters the week one back from seventh of CSUN in the loss column, and one up on UCI for the final playoff spot.
UC SAN DIEGO (0-16 MPSF/4-17 Overall) pushed both Pepperdine (Mar. 2) and UC Irvine (Mar. 5) to five sets at home last week. The Tritons rallied from two sets down and 17-11 in the third vs. UCI. Tanner Syftestad had 18 kills (.318) with two aces and five blocks in that match, while Ian Colbert (10 kills/10 digs) and Ryan Blaich (49 assists/10 digs) each had double-doubles. Colbert tied a match-high 19 kills and Tanner Howard collected a 2016 conference-high 19 digs vs. Pepperdine.