NORTHRIDGE, CA – For the CSUN Matadors, the 2016 season will come down to the final week of the season.
The Matadors fell in four sets to No. 6 Pepperdine at Firestone Fieldhouse Saturday. CSUN will have to wait until the final week of the season for its postseason fate to be determined.
Saturday’s loss drops the Matadors below .500 for the first time this season as CSUN slips to 13-14 overall and 6-14 in the MPSF. Cal Baptist, a 3-0 winner over UC San Diego on Friday, heads into the final week tied with the Matadors for the eighth and final playoff spot at 6-14. UC Irvine (5-14) is one-half game back heading into a Sunday match at USC.
As has been the case for CSUN in recent weeks, the Matadors played even for much of the night only to see their opponents pull away late.
The Waves won the opening set 25-21 before CSUN bounced back to even the match by winning set two 25-22. But the Matadors were not able to build on the momentum and fell 25-18 in set three and ultimately 25-20 in the fourth.
Senior Dan Starkey put down a season-high 15 kills on 43 attacks to lead the Matadors. Freshman Dimitar Kalchev added 13 kills (.241) and had both of CSUN’s aces giving him 45 for the season. Jakub Ciesla chipped in nine kills (.261) to go with seven digs and two blocks while Josiah Byers added seven kills on .636 hitting.
Nick Alegrado had a career-high 13 digs in the loss while setter Sam Porter handed out 42 assists to go with four digs and two blocks.
CSUN was out-hit by Pepperdine .342 (57-19-111) to .274 (52-18-124) and the Waves had 10 aces to two for the Matadors. Each team had 10.5 blocks with Brian O’Gorman recorded a pair of solo stuffs.
The Matadors had 20 kills while hitting .459 in winning the second set but did not hit higher than .280 in either of the other three sets.
CSUN will travel to UC Irvine (Apr. 7) and UC San Diego (Apr. 9) to complete the 2016 regular season next week.
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