In what was their first appearance in the Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship since the tournament was created in 2023, CSUN fell in three straight sets to UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday afternoon at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid.
CSUN (No. 5 seed) led the match for a minimal period of time and faced the difficult challenge of playing catch up for a majority of the match against the UCSB Gauchos (No. 4 seed).
Although the Gauchos beat the Matadors twice in the regular season, including a win via a sweep, UCSB head coach Matt Jones said this matchup differed from previous ones.
“We’re playing CSUN for the third time, but this is the first time that they played us at full strength,” Jones said. “It’s like a little bit different element for them to have to kind of have to contend with and adjust to.”
The Gauchos came out strong to start the match and went on a seven-point run before the Matadors could get on the board.
CSUN quickly saw the point differential grow larger between them and the Gauchos, who extended their lead to double digits before eventually taking the first set with a score of 25-13.
The Matadors kept the score closer during the second set, tying the match five times. They did not let the Gauchos gain more than five points over them until the tail end of the set.
CSUN head coach Aquiles Montoya said he told his team to have faith in one another between the first two sets.
“Just to settle in and just trust Matador volleyball and what that is because there’s a reason that we’re here,” Montoya said. “We felt, you know, that we had been in some really tight matches that felt like playoff volleyball and that this moment isn’t too big for us even though this is a stage that, you know, CSUN hasn’t been on in a while.”
UCSB didn’t let up and was one set away from sweeping the Matadors to advance to the next round of the playoffs, winning the second set 25-17.
CSUN opened up the scoring in the third set with a 2-0 lead, which was their first of the match. However, they weren’t able to hold on to it for long as UCSB eventually ran away with the lead.
The Matadors found themselves trailing by multiple points once again. They ultimately saw their season come to an end at the hands of a Gauchos sweep, who won the final set 25-18.
Montoya expressed that while he thinks the future of CSUN volleyball is exciting, Wednesday’s match was ultimately a reflection of what the team has accomplished this season.
CSUN middle blocker Hayley Ogden has two more years of eligibility to play collegiate volleyball. Though the Matadors ended the season on a loss, Ogdan said she now feels more prepared for the future.
“I think now we have a little bit of a taste of what postseason looks like and feels like, and just coming back next year, I think we’re all just hungry for it even more than we already were,” she said.
Editor’s note: An incorrect stat about the playoff history was corrected on Dec. 2, 2025.
