After a promising start, most of CSUN’s sports teams ended up having forgettable weekends. The women’s basketball team started off victorious against Pacific, but not much else seemed to go right thereafter.
The Big West swimming championships started in Long Beach on Wednesday, and both CSUN’s men and women finished in last place. The lone bright spots for the Matadors were junior Nate Rust and freshman Brian Sawyer.
Rust swam a time of 16:09.15 in the 1650 freestyle to move into 10th place on the Matadors all-time list. Sawyer swam a time of 1:52.06 in the 200 butterfly to finish seventh in the meet.
The women’s tennis team lost their third, fourth and fifth consecutive matches over the weekend, in a tournament in Las Vegas. After starting off the season promising, at 2-1, the Matadors have struggled ever since.
The tournament saw the Matadors matched up first against 15th ranked Tulane but the match wasn’t very close as Tulane blanked the Matadors 7-0. In the second match on Saturday, CSUN was again beaten, falling 6-1 to Texas Tech.
In the final match of the tournament, CSUN was matched up against Oklahoma State and was again defeated 4-1. Kanykey Koichumanova was the only Matador with somewhat successful results, as she was able to win twice, including a doubles match with teammate Kasia Krasinska.
The men’s baseball team was scheduled for three games over the weekend, but due to unplayable field conditions from the recent rain, their games were cancelled again. The Matadors have now had seven games cancelled or postponed due to the weather so far this season.
In the eight games they have played, CSUN is 3-4-1, and being led by their surprising pitching staff. Entering the season, the batters were expected to be among the best in the conference.
During their slow start, pitchers Peter Eberhardt and Craig Baker have combined to go 3-0 with 24 strikeouts in 28 innings. Baker has started three times and Eberhardt, the Big West pitcher of the week to start the season, has also come up with two saves.
The women’s softball team lost three of four over the weekend in Georgia. The fifth game of the series was cancelled due to weather. Like the baseball team with eight rainouts, the women have had 10 games cancelled due to inclement weather. Entering the weekend, the softball team was playing well in their limited action, with a record of 4-1.
The men’s and women’s track and field team competed in Seattle over the weekend, and minus a few successful athletes, the results didn’t turn out as they would have liked. The men finished eighth as a group while the women finished seventh.
Besides the women’s basketball team, the only other success story of the weekend was the men’s volleyball team, which swept the USC Trojans 30-21, 30-25 and 30-22. The win pushed the eighth ranked Matadors within a game of the .500-mark at 8-9.
