After losing their first three games of the season on the road, the CSUN women’s volleyball team won their first game of the season versus the Fresno State Bulldogs on Wednesday at Premier American Credit Union Arena.
The Matadors’ defensive intensity, hustle, and teamwork shone in their home opener, against the Fresno State Bulldogs.
Middle blocker Taylor Hunter led the Matadors with a team-high 10 kills as the Matadors dominated the Bulldogs in the 3-0 sweep 25-19, 25-21, 27-25.
While the team swept Fresno State, the Bulldogs made each set competitive and the difference between the two teams was effort and defense: the Matadors had 12 blocks as opposed to the Bulldogs’ five.
Director of women’s volleyball John Price noted how frustrating it can be for a team to lose many close matches at the start of a season; however, the team rebounded and defeated the Bulldogs in three sets.
“Everyone was great today,” Price said. “It’s been a long time since we had players put out that kind of effort on defense, and to get rewarded by winning a lot of those long rallies where they really took the extra effort out was very nice to see.”
The Matadors’ win was a good reset for the team following the slow start in the fall season, and the players look forward to building on the success and dominant performance Wednesday.
“I thought we played really well as a team,” Hunter said. “I think our chemistry is pretty good right now, so having this 3-0 win under our belt is going to be good momentum for us through the rest of the season, hopefully, and I think it made us, as a team, feel good, after this weekend, too.”
The team’s ability to adapt and counter the Bulldogs offense by getting them out of their system and maintaining their own, along with forcing errors, allowed for good runs in all three sets.
“Defensively, I think what helped us was we sort of strategically figured out who they were going to set, which helped us on our blocks,” Hunter said. “Offensively, I think we had a lot of open net to work with, which helped us as well.”
Moving forward to the rest of the season, the women’s volleyball team hopes this win will supplement their performance in the following games, and that the home crowd will continue to aid the team with energy.
“It was nice to get our first win of the season at home; I think it was a home advantage, as a lot of the other student athletes came out, which was fun,” assistant coach Kylie Miller said.
“Serving and the pass game tonight was great as we were in the system. I think that’s probably why we won the game and was huge.”
The Matadors will travel to Fresno State Friday to complete their two-match set. The game will be at Save Mart Center in Fresno at 6 p.m.
