Originally Published April 22, 2008 The sixth-seeded Stanford Cardinal certainly showed that it wasn't going to be a pushover for the third-seeded CSUN Matador men's volleyball team in its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation quarterfinal match at the Matadome on Saturday night. In the end however, nothing was going to stop CSUN from securing a place in the MPSF semifinals, as they worked for another three-game sweep, as a balanced offensive attack combined with some good siding out enabled the Matadors to take out the Cardinal by scores of 30-26, 30-19 and 30-28.

A weekend that started out fairly well for the CSUN Matador softball team ended up crashing pretty bad. The Matadors shut out the Cal State Fullerton Titans 4-0 in the first game of their crucial three-game series on Saturday, but the Titans recovered, first winning a tightly contested game 4-3 later that day, then by winning the third game in a blowout 7-0 on Sunday afternoon.

When CSUN played its two matches against BYU at Provo, Utah back on Feb. 1 and 2, the Matadors didn't field a full squad for either match, but were able to push the Cougars in both, losing in four games in the first match and taking BYU the full five in the rubber match The third time, however, despite fielding a full squad and playing on a neutral court, the second-seeded Cougars left little doubt as to who was the better team.

The CSUN Matador baseball team had quite a bit of momentum going into its home series against the Long Beach State Dirtbags this past weekend. The Matadors had battled perennial Big West powerhouse Cal State Fullerton in that series' final two games and beat the UCLA Bruins at Jackie Robinson Stadium last Tuesday.

The sixth-seeded Stanford Cardinal certainly showed that it wasn't going to be a pushover for the third-seeded CSUN Matador men's volleyball team in its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation quarterfinal match at the Matadome on Saturday night. In the end however, nothing was going to stop CSUN from securing a place in the MPSF semifinals, as they worked for another three-game sweep, as a balanced offensive attack combined with some good siding out enabled the Matadors to take out the Cardinal by scores of 30-26, 30-19 and 30-28.

The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos' softball team came into its weekend series with the CSUN Matadors 23-16 and unblemished in six Big West Conference games. ?Someone forgot to tell that to the Matadors, though. ?CSUN handed the Gauchos its first two conference losses on Saturday by scores of 5-4 and 3-1, but was unable to muster up the same magic in the rubber match the next day, losing 4-0.

Saturday night's regular season finale between the third-ranked CSUN Matador men's volleyball team and the fourth-ranked Long Beach State 49ers at the Matadome had a lot riding on it. After beating UC San Diego on Friday night, the Matadors needed a win to clinch a share of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title and with it, the second seed in the upcoming MPSF playoffs and possibly an at-large bid into the final four should it come up short in the tournament.

Three days after seeing its 14-match winning streak snapped, the second-ranked CSUN men's volleyball team faced a tough task of getting back on track against the seventh-ranked UCLA Bruins at Pauley Pavilion. ?"We knew we could've done a lot better (Tuesday night)," sophomore libero Ali'i Keohouhou said.

The first Big West Conference series did not go the way the CSUN Matador baseball team would've liked. The Matadors showed plenty of fight in its weekend series against the host UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, though Santa Barbara still had enough in its tank to win all three games at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium by scores of 9-5, 8-7, and 10-6.

The second-ranked CSUN Matador men's volleyball team certainly wasn't taking the Hope-International Royals lightly on Friday night. ?The Matadors jumped on the Royals early and often, and hardly gave them any chances to get into the match. Northridge won its 14th match in a row, sweeping Hope International decisively at the Matadome by scores of 30-22, 30-22 and 30-20.

After struggling to defeat the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors in the first match between the two teams on Tuesday night, the second-ranked CSUN Matador men's volleyball team left very little doubt 24 hours later as to who was the better team. The Matadors had a much easier time with the 13th-ranked Warriors on Wednesday night.

The CSUN Matador men's volleyball team has been on quite a ride the last couple of weeks. After spending a week ranked No. 1 in the nation in a tie with Penn State, adversity has hit them lately. ?The Matadors are back to a No. 2 ranking, just one point behind Penn State, despite the fact that neither team played last week.