CSUN women's volleyball heads into its final regular season road swing this week with more than mileage on the line. The Matadors, 11-13 overall and 7-7 in Big West play, visit UC Irvine on Friday and UC San Diego on Saturday, with all four teams tied at 7-7 fighting for the conference's sixth and final Big West Championship berth.
Friday's match at Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif., is set for 6 p.m. PT, and Saturday's match at LionTree Arena in La Jolla, Calif., follows at 5 p.m. PT. Both matches will stream on + with live stats available, giving CSUN one last chance to move itself out of the tie before the Big West Championship runs Nov. 25-28.
The search interest around this trip makes sense because the standings are compressed behind the top three. Cal Poly is 13-1, Long Beach State is 12-2, and Sacramento State and UC Santa Barbara share third at 8-6, leaving CSUN, UC Irvine, UC San Diego and Utah Valley jammed into the next slot. That means these two matches can still change who gets the last postseason ticket, and they can change CSUN's path with only one weekend left in the regular season.
There is also the matter of how CSUN gets there. UC Irvine beat the Matadors 3-1 on Oct. 17, and Friday will be the 71st meeting between the programs. The Anteaters lead the all-time series 39-31, hold a 32-17 edge in 49 Big West matches and have taken 12 of 22 meetings in Irvine, so CSUN is walking back into a building where the numbers have not often broken its way.
Fallyn Blotzer adds another layer after being named Big West Rookie of the Week. She helped CSUN to a pair of five-set conference wins, including a 3-2 victory over California Baptist on Nov. 5 and another five-set win over a Big West opponent last week, and that kind of grind-it-out form is exactly what a road weekend like this can reward.
UC San Diego offers a different kind of test. The Tritons are also 7-7, host Cal State Bakersfield on Friday before seeing CSUN on Saturday, and the teams will meet for the 21st time overall. CSUN leads the overall series 12-8, but UC San Diego leads the Big West series 8-2, while the Matadors are 6-3 all-time in La Jolla. That split tells the story as clearly as any standings table: CSUN is close enough to qualify, but not secure enough to assume anything.
If the Matadors want to control their own postseason fate, they need the kind of road weekend that turns a tie into separation. Win both, and they can improve their standing relative to the other teams at 7-7; stumble, and the final berth may come down to results elsewhere. For CSUN, this is the week that decides whether the regular season ends with a place in the Big West Championship or a long wait for help.
