April 22, 2008

2008 MPSF TOURNAMENT - SEMIFINALS

MATCH ONE: #5 Seed Pepperdine vs. #1 Seed Long Beach State • Thursday, April 24 • Walter Pyramid • 5:30 p.m. MATCH TWO: #3 Seed Northridge vs. #2 Seed Brigham Young • Thursday, April 24 • Walter Pyramid • 8 p.m.

SEMIFINAL MATCH WITH SECOND-SEEDED BYU AWAITS THIRD-SEEDED MATADORS After taking care of the sixth-seed Stanford Cardinal in the MPSF quarterfinals, third-seeded Cal State Northridge (23-6, 17-5 MPSF) travels to Long Beach on Thursday to take on the second-seeded BYU Cougars (24-4, 18-4 MPSF) in the semifinals of the MPSF Tournament. The Northridge-BYU match is scheduled for an 8 p.m. first serve, preceded by top-seed Long Beach State hosting fifth-seed Pepperdine at 5:30 p.m. The two winners will meet for the MPSF Championship on Saturday, Apr. 26 at 7 p.m. The Matadors, ranked fourth by the AVCA this week, are seeking their first berth in the MPSF Championship match since 1993 when Northridge defeated Long Beach State 3-0. The Matadors trail 26-17 in the all-time series with BYU, trail 33-26 in the all-time series with Long Beach State and trail 46-17 in the all-time series with Pepperdine.

NORTHRIDGE ON THE NET Thursday's MPSF semifinal match against BYU will be broadcast live with Cory Bluemling, the voice of Matador men's volleyball, calling all the action. Click the newly-launched GoMatadors.com for more information.

TICKET TALK Attention Matador Fans! Come out and support your Men's Volleyball team as they take on BYU in an MPSF semifinal match at the Walter Pyramid at Long Beach State. Ticket Information is as follows: All tickets are General Admission. There will be signage at the venue to direct fans to their respective fan sections. All tournament passes are now on sale.

**All tickets purchased online or via telephone will be held at the will call table at the Walter Pyramid.

All Tournament Passes: All three matches $30 Adult $18 Youth (under 17) Senior (60+) $10 CSUN Students

Thursday, April 24th Two-Game Pass* 5:30 p.m. #5 Pepperdine vs. #1 Long Beach State 8 p.m. #2 BYU vs. #3 CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE *These tickets are available for purchase online starting 12:01 a.m. on April 24th. These tickets will also be available at the venue location.

$20-Adult $10-Youth (under 17) Senior (60+) $5-CSUN Students

**Please note the CSUN student all tournament passes can only be purchased at the Long Beach ticket window as you must show your CSUN Student I.D.

For more information on tickets, call the Long Beach State Ticket Office at 562-985-4949 or visit www.longbeachstate.com.

MATADORS EARN MPSF QUARTERFINAL BERTH WITH 3-0 WIN OVER STANFORD Junior Eric Vance had a match-high 15 kills and freshman Cody Loe added 13 as third-seeded Cal State Northridge advanced to the MPSF Tournament semifinals after defeating sixth-seeded Stanford, 30-26, 30-19, 30-28 in a quarterfinal match Saturday at The Matadome. With the win, the Matadors improve to 23-6 overall and match the 1993 Northridge team for the most wins in a single season in Matador history. The loss ends the Cardinal's season at 17-11. Vance's 15 kills led four Northridge hitters in double figures as the junior First Team All-MPSF selection hit .257 and also served three of the Matadors' eight aces. Loe hit .524 on his way to 13 kills, senior Isaac Kneubuhl recorded 12 kills while hitting a match-high .632 and sophomore Kevin McKniff chipped in 10 kills (.467). Kneubuhl and Mike Gaudino each added a pair of aces and libero Ali'i Keohohou had a team-high 10 digs. Matador setter Travis Bluemling posted 50 assists as the Matadors hit .406 on their way to their 12th win in 13 home matches this season. Northridge out-hit Stanford .406 to .192.

MATADORS RANKED FOURTH HEADING INTO MPSF SEMIFINALS After defeating No. 6 Stanford to advance to the MPSF semifinals, the Matadors remain fourth this week in the CBS College Sports Network/AVCA Top 15 Poll. Northridge (23-6) received 193 points from the pollsters this week. Penn State (26-1) remained the top ranked team for the sixth straight week after earning 15 of 16 first-place votes and 239 total points. Long Beach State (23-5) picked up one first-place vote and remains second followed by BYU (24-4), the Matadors and Pepperdine (14-10), which advanced to the MPSF semifinals with a road win at UCLA. The Bruins (17-14) are sixth this week followed by UC Irvine (16-15), Stanford (17-11), Ohio State (18-7) and Ball State (20-9) completes this week's top 10. The Matadors also remained fourth with 69 points in the most recent Molten/Volleyball poll (Apr. 15).

IT'S DOWN TO FOUR IN THE MPSF TOURNAMENT The four-team field of Long Beach State, BYU, Northridge and Pepperdine will compete for the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Championships. The host 49ers earned a bye into Thursday's semifinal round by claiming the regular season title. Pepperdine, the No. 5 seed, was the only team to upset a higher seeded team in the quarterfinals as the Waves knocked off No. 4 seed UCLA in four games. BYU comes into Thursday's matches with the longest win streak at seven, while Long Beach has won four in a row. The Matadors have won 17 of their last 19 matches while Pepperdine has won six of its last eight.

A RECORD FIVE MATADORS NAMED ALL-MPSF Junior Eric Vance was named to the 2008 All-MPSF First Team as a school-record five Cal State Northridge players were selected to the all-conference team as announced by the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation on Friday, Apr. 18. The 2008 Northridge team matched the 2004 team with five All-MPSF selections which is the most of any team in school history. Vance became the first Matador player since Doug English in 2003 to garner First Team accolades. Also named to the 2008 all-conference team were senior Isaac Kneubuhl (Second Team), freshman Cody Loe (Second Team), Travis Bluemling (Second Team) and sophomore Kevin McKniff (Honorable Mention). The All-MPSF honors are the first for Kneubuhl, Bluemling, Loe and McKniff while Vance was named to Honorable Mention as a sophomore in 2007.

MATADORS IN THE NCAA STATS Several Northridge players appear in this week's NCAA statistics report. Junior Eric Vance ranks fifth in aces (.525), eighth in points (5.33) and ninth in kills (4.47). Also figuring into the national stats, senior Travis Bluemling remains third in assists (13.10 per game), freshman Cody Loe (.441) and sophomore Kevin McKniff (.415) rank sixth and 14th respectively in hitting percentage, senior Isaac Kneubuhl is 18th in aces (.360) and sophomore Ali'i Keohohou is 12th in digs (2.44 per game). As a team, the Matadors moved into second in team hitting in the country at .326.

NORTHRIDGE IN THE MPSF TOURNAMENT The Matadors are making their seventh consecutive trip and 11th overall to the MPSF Tournament. With Saturday's win over Stanford, Northridge earned its first trip to the conference semifinals since 2005 when the Matadors lost in four games at Pepperdine after upsetting No. 2 UCLA in the quarters at Pauley Pavilion. Northridge is now 4-6 in MPSF Tournament matches under Jeff Campbell.

NORTHRIDGE NOTES The Matadors wound up the season 12-1 (.923) at home after Saturday's three-game sweep over Stanford. That record trails only the 1991 Northridge team that finished 13-1 (.929) on the homecourt ... After a 6-4 start, Northridge is 17-2 over its last 19 matches ... Long Beach State and Northridge did their best to confound the preseason prognosticators. The regular season champion 49ers were picked to finish seventh in the MPSF preseason poll, while the Matadors were slotted fifth but took third ... Thursday's match against BYU will be Northridge's first match at Long Beach's Pyramid this season. When the Matadors played Long Beach on Feb. 29, the match was played in the Gold Mine due to a basketball game at the Pyramid.

SCOUTING BYU The second-seeded Cougars (24-4, 18-4 MPSF) defeated seventh-seed UC Irvine in four games on Saturday to earn a spot in the MPSF semifinals. Senior OH Ivan Perez had a match-high 19 kills to lead BYU past UC Irvine while sophomore OH Andrew Stewart chipped in 12 kills and eight blocks. For the season, Perez leads the Cougars with 422 kills (4.31 kpg) while senior OPP Jonathan Charette averages 3.24 kills per game. Setters Reed Chilton (9.95 apg), Brian Congelliere (9.74 apg) and Yamil Perez (3.66 apg) have each spent time running the BYU offense. The Cougars are out-blocking their opponents 3.07 to 2.56 per game while hitting .309 as a team. Head coach Shawn Patchell is in his second season as the head coach at BYU and sports a 47-10 career and school. The Matadors and Cougars have met twice this season with BYU winning both matches at home. On Feb. 1, Perez and Charette combined for 36 kills as the Cougars won in four games. Vance led the Matadors with 18 kills while Cody Loe had 11. The next night, Isaac Kneubuhl and Loe combined for 42 kills but Charette and Perez had a combined 44 as BYU won in five. Northridge committed 55 service errors and had just three aces in the two matches in the altitude of Provo, Utah. The Matadors and Cougars have met in the postseason twice with BYU winning both matches on its home floor. The Cougars won in four in the 2003 quarterfinals and then eliminated Northridge in the quarterfinals in last season's MPSF Tournament. The teams are 1-1 all-time in neutral site matches.

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