Aquiles Montoya has had a vision and big plans for CSUN’s growing women’s volleyball program since he was hired on as the head coach in 2024. In just two years, he’s helped the team break records and reach the playoffs, something that hasn’t been done in years.
In 2023, CSUN was 6-23 overall and 4-14 conference. Montoya came in and changed the game.
He said upon his arrival, Montoya wanted to create a culture where players could be independent and adaptable while striving to win.
“They were just looking for someone to guide them in a place that they love and a game that they love,” Montoya said. “And so we just kind of jumped on that really fast and just started kind of building that mold.”
Last season, he led the team to double digit wins (10-19 overall, 5-13 conference) for the first time since 2019. This year, Montoya led them to their winning record in the regular season (17-13 overall) for the first time since 2014.
It doesn’t stop there — Montoya also guided this year’s team to reach double digits in conference wins (10-8) for the first time since joining Big West in 2001.
With all these winning records, CSUN was able to secure their spot as the No. 5 seed in their first appearance at the Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship since its creation in 2023.
Montoya said that his goal by this time around was to make a run in the playoffs and eventually a run in the NCAA tournament.
While CSUN did meet the expectation of making the playoffs, their time was short lived, falling to the No. 4 seed UC Santa Barbara in three straight sets. Yet, the taste of the playoffs left the team hungry for more.
Montoya acknowledged that there’s a lot of work left to do to make it one step further, but he thinks the team is close.
“A lot of people now see CSUN as a good volleyball school. There’s been so much history before, and I feel like we’ve kind of woken that up again,” Montoya said.
The team is expected to maintain their health and physicality throughout the offseason to help them prepare to withstand a full season next year. By weightlifting, working on positional work and playing a few scrimmage style matches in the spring, the team looks to grow stronger, not only as individuals, but as a unit.
Montoya believes the Spring training is what made CSUN have their big jump of improvement from 2023 to now and looks forward to continuously growing his team throughout this time.
“It’s that spring time where you can really push. They lift and play hard the whole time because a lot of times we’re not saving them for a match,” Montoya said. “And then you know sometimes it allows them to not have the stress of a match and just, like, really explore and be able to fail kind of fearlessly.”
He also said the team is looking at trying to fundraise money to take a trip to the Dominican Republic for a few international matches against the nation’s U19, U21 and U23 teams in order to get some extra training in.
As for next season, Montoya is expecting a lot from the program because it’s going to be a senior-heavy roster, with most players having been on the team when he was first hired.
He is looking to scope out the transfer portal and trying to develop the depth of the team. However, he mentioned one player is going to be hard to replace — senior opposite Leah Miller.
“Leah just had so much uniqueness in her being left handed and her capabilities that that’s kind of a more unique challenge,” Montoya said.
Miller, along with teammate middle blocker Hayley Ogden, were both chosen as Big West All Team selections. This honor was the first time CSUN had representation since the 2023 season.
Even though the offseason just started for the Matadors, Montoya has remained busy in working on excitedly building new additions for the upcoming team.
Outside hitter Raegan Richardson was a redshirt this past season, but she is expected to be in full swing next season.
High school seniors Annie Gilmore from Utah and Madison Jameson Rodriguez from Las Vegas, Nevada, have committed to CSUN and are ready to “rep the ridge” with Montoya and the rest of the team.
