Loretto, Pa.- The Saint Francis men's volleyball team head to the West Coast for a pair of matches against No. 12 Cal State Northridge and No.1 Long Beach State.
 
Game Info.
Friday, Mar. 8 (10 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. PT)
at. Cal State Northridge
Watch | Live Stats
 
Saturday, Mar. 9 (10 p.m. ET/ 7p.m. PT)
at Long Beach State
Listen | Live Stats
 
About Cal State Northridge
CSUN, picked to finish fifth in the Big West, comes into the weekend at No. 12 in the AVCA poll with a trio of Top-15 wins to its credit, including a four-set win vs. No. 12 Concordia (Jan.3), sweep of No. 2 UCLA (Jan. 9), and five set victory against No. 13 Purdue Fort Wayne. As it currently stands, the Matadors sit fifth in the Big West with a conference record of 0-2 and overall record of 8-8.
 
The Matadors have a new setter in Taylor Ittner running the offense, and his early-success has helped him notch a team high 557 assists which is second in the conference behind 662 from UC Irvine's Dante Chakravorti. Head Coach Mark Husle will also be tasked with containing Dimitar Kalchev on the outside. The Kardzhali, Bulgaria, native finished 2018 on the All-Big West First Team and currently ranks third in the conference with 206 kills on a 3.32 kills per set average. Defensively, senior Emmett Enriques has recorded team leading 114 digs on a 1.81 digs per set average while redshirt freshman Daniel Wetter contains the middle with 46 blocks on a .75 block per set average.
 
Series History
Saint Francis and CSUN will go head-to-head for the 3rd time in program history. The Matadors lead the all-time series with a 2-0 record, winning the last meeting 3-1.
 
About Long Beach State
Long Beach State enters the weekend as the one of two undefeated teams remaining in the nation at 15-0 after their 2018 national championship. LBSU has dropped only one set this season and are coming off two-straight sweeps against Cal State Northridge this past weekend.
 
TJ DeFlaco, Louis Richard, and Nick Amado have been the anchors for Long Beach State, contributing on both sides of the net. The trio are ranked in the top 10 in the Big West and in the top 25 in the NCAA in their positions. DeFlaco tallied four aces in the matches against CSUN to bring his career total to 155. He is now just four aces away from becoming the LBSU all-time aces leader. Senior setter Josh Tuaniga is also close to approaching a milestone 4,000 career assists as he is 20 assists away. Nick Amado, Simon Andersen, and DeFlaco has controlled the defensive front for Long Beach State, knocking down 30+ blocks apiece on eight combined errors
 
Series History
Saturday's matchup will be the second meeting between the programs as Long Beach St. edged the Red Flash in straight sets a season ago.
 
Fisher earns EIVA Weekly Award
Redshirt junior Michael Fisher (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley (Pepperdine)) led all players with 19 kills while hitting .500 and had six digs in a sweep against NJIT last weekend. He also had a match-high 18 kills on a .517 attack percentage and added two blocks as St. Francis beat first-place Princeton in four games on Saturday to extend its EIVA winning streak to four matches. As it stands, Fisher sits first in the conference with 251 kills and a kills per set average of 4.83. His efforts also put him in the top-five in the conference with a .333 hitting percentage.
 
Keeping Momentum
Following two weekend sweep's, SFU not only indicated it could hang with the high standing conference opponents but more importantly, the team displayed it could be one of the top teams in the EIVA. Sitting seventh out of eight teams in the conference a few weeks ago, the Red Flash jumped four sports to third with a 5-2 conference record and a 11-6 overall record. George Mason and Princeton currently hold the top position in the standings but the Red Flash are creeping closely behind.
 
For all the latest on Saint Francis men's volleyball, follow @RedFlashMVB on social media and visit sfuathletics.com.