The Matadors (2-1) continued their young season by sweeping Concordia (2-2) at home, 25-17, 25-20, 25-11.
CSUN was led by senior opposite John Baker who led all players with eight kills on .571 hitting. Northridge also capitalized on its strong serving with nine aces, three of them coming from sophomore setter, Travis Magorien.
Magorien also had a match-high 26 assists along with four digs to round his night. The Matadors hit .375 as a team which marks their best percentage of their season thus far. In comparison, Concordia hit .079.
The first set was close throughout until the Matadors pulled away at the end with the final three points coming from two kills and a block from senior middle blocker Drew Staker.
“It was important for me because it gave me a burst of energy going into the second game,” Staker said. “I think it fired up the team to come out and stomp on them in games two and three.”
The second set was also close all the way through as the two teams traded points and were tied 15-15 at one point. CSUN got two big blocks from junior outside hitter, Brandon Lebrock, to gain a 19-16 edge. It was all Matadors after that as they cruised to a 25-20 victory in the second set.
“We knew what we had to do and that was serve tough, swing hard, and all around play good volleyball,” Lebrock said.
Northridge jumped out of the gates of the third set early as they got off to a 9-2 lead. Considering how close the first two sets were, head coach Jeff Campbell praised his team for coming out hard in the third set to close it out.
“They were more consistent on the serve and you could see how that demoralized the passing on the other team,” Campbell said.
The Matadors, however, didn’t need their coach to tell them to step it up as they were motivated to finish it off in the third set.
“I didn’t tell them anything, there was nothing special I said,” Campbell said. “They felt like they could play a little bit better, and they did.”
Magorien had a huge block to give the Matadors a 15-5 lead and the reserves came in shortly after to finish it off. Redshirt freshman middle blocker Vaughn Wellenreiter capped the game off with two late aces to give the Matadors a commanding 25-11 victory.
“It’s always nice to get somebody some playing time that hasn’t gotten playing time before,” Campbell said.
The Matadors will have their next game at home on Friday night at 7pm against Grand Canyon, a non-conference opponent.
