Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State Heads to CSUN for Saturday Clash
11/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Saturday, Nov. 12
Long Beach State at CSUN
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: The Matadome (Northridge, Calif.)
Listen | Live Stats | BigWest.TV
LAST TIME OUT
• Long Beach State suffered a 3-0 defeat at No. 15 Hawai'i last Friday night, dropping the Beach out of first place in the Big West for the first time all season. LBSU and Hawai'i split the season series, but the Rainbow Wahine hold a half-game lead in the standings with just one conference loss.
• Senior outside hitter Nele Barber had nine kills, 13 digs and an ace to lead the 49ers in the Hawai'i match, but LBSU hit just .083 on the night.
MATADOR MATCHUP
• LBSU won the previous meeting between these two teams 25-14, 25-21, 25-15 back on Oct. 15. Ashley Murray had a match-high 10 kills on .643 hitting, Nele Barber had nine kills and 12 digs and Peyton Grahovac hit a career-best .750 with six kills on eight swings.
• The Beach hit .425 against the Matadors, which is the team's highest hitting percentage of the season in any match. LBSU registered 40 kills on 80 attacks while accumulating a season-low six hitting errors.
• Sophomore outside hitter Aeryn Owens led CSUN with nine kills and eight digs in the match, but hit just .032. Owens averages 3.49 kills/set on the season to lead the Matadors. Junior libero Katie Sato averages 4.29 digs/set and has twice this season been named Big West Defensive Player of the Week.
• Long Beach State leads 52-23 in the all-time series with CSUN, winning five consecutive matches over the Matadors.
FRESHMEN IN THE MIDDLE
• LBSU has plenty of young talent this season, including at the middle of the net with foreign freshmen YiZhi Xue (Nanjing, China) and Kjersti Norveel (Tonsberg, Norway).
• Xue has started every match this season and leads the Beach with 1.06 blocks per set this season. She also leads the team in hitting percentage at .331, including a .380 mark during Big West matches.
• Norveel, meanwhile, has been a new addition to the starting lineup over the last three matches. She made her first career start at home against UC Davis on Oct. 29, then started the next two matches in the middle. Norveel recorded a career-high nine kills on .350 hitting in last Tuesday's win over Cal State Fullerton.
BARBER'S RARE AIR
• Senior outside hitter Nele Barber has won three Big West Player of the Week honors this season, giving her a total of seven in her less-than-two-year career at Long Beach State. That is tied for the second-most in program history, behind only Danielle Scott.
• Barber leads the Beach in both kills per set (4.02) and digs per set (3.52) and is leading the conference with 4.34 kills/set during Big West play.
MURRAY & HARWARD CLAIM BIG WEST HONORS
• Following wins over UC Riverside and No. 12 Hawai'i, the Beach had two players earn Big West weekly awards on Oct. 10, with junior Ashley Murray winning Big West Player of the Week and freshman Hailey Harward picking up Defensive Player of the Week.
• This was Murray's first career Player of the Week honor, after winning Defensive POW once and Freshman POW three times in 2014. Murray hit .385 in both matches last week, recording 13 kills at UCR and then a career-high 17 against Hawai'i. The middle blocker also led the team with seven total blocks on the week.
• Harward, meanwhile, had the best week of her young career, setting career highs in digs in both matches. She recorded 23 ups against the Highlanders, then topped that with 27 digs against Hawai'i, delivering a rare show-stopping performance from a libero. This is the first Big West award for Harward, who is the third straight LBSU freshman to win a Big West Defensive Player of the Week award, following Murray in 2014 and Mykah Wilson last season.
ARE YOU SAYING POW?
• For the second time this season, Nele Barber and YiZhi Xue earned weekly Big West awards on the same day. On Oct. 3, the conference announced that Barber was the Big West Player of the Week and Xue was the Big West Freshman of the Week.
• In the Cal Poly win, Barber was just one dig shy of a double-double with 15 kills and a .344 hitting percentage. All 15 of her kills came in the first two sets as she was hitting well over .500 heading to intermission.
• Xue had five blocks vs. Cal Poly, but it was her performance on Saturday against the Gauchos that really stood out. The freshman middle blocker recorded a career-high 12 kills against UCSB and hit a match-high .556.
• The duo also won weekly awards together on Sept. 12, with Xue winning Defensive Player of the Week instead. That was thanks to her 11-block performance against Duke, which still stands as the best blocking effort from any 49er this season. Barber, meanwhile, nearly had a triple-double in that match with Duke, finishing just one block shy of the rare feat.
THE AWARD GOES TO...
• Following her monster weekend Sept. 8-10, senior Nele Barber was named the Big West and AVCA Player of the Week. It's the fifth Big West POW honor in Barber's two-year career at the Beach so far, and her first national award from the AVCA. Barber became the 11th player in program history to earn AVCA Player of the Week recognition and first since Bre Mackie in 2014.
• Barber averaged 4.39 kills, 2.94 digs and 1.06 blocks per set on the week, hitting .299 across four matches. She posted a pair of 20+ kill, 15+ dig performances on that Saturday, and hit a season-best .567 against LMU with no errors on 30 swings. Her most complete performance came against Duke, however, when she was just one block shy of a triple-double, finishing with 19 kills, 14 digs and a career-high nine blocks.
WATCH & LISTEN
• All of Long Beach State's non-televised home matches will be streamed live online and free of charge on BigWest.TV.
• Every LBSU match, home and away, can be heard live on KBeach Radio. Listen in at KBeach.org or via the free KBeach Radio app.
