2024-25 CSUN Top Moments - A Pair of CSUN Teams in National Rankings
From June 11 to August 11, GoMatadors.com will present the top CSUN Moments from the 2024-25 sports season. Today, we celebrate the Men's Volleyball and Women's Water Polo teams who were each nationally ranked during the 2024-25 academic year.
CSUN Athletics produced a pair of programs that reached national rankings in their respective sports during the 2024-25 season. CSUN men's volleyball finished the season ranked ninth, while women's water polo reached as high as 16th during the 2025 campaign.
In men's volleyball, CSUN finished with an 18-11 overall record and was ranked ninth in the final AVCA National Collegiate Coaches Poll of the season. The Matadors, under third-year head coach Theo Edwards, were ranked in the top-10 in the final poll of the season for the second time in the last seven seasons and 17th time since the creation of the AVCA national poll in 1986.
After concluding the season with a heartbreaking five-set loss to No. 4 UC Irvine in the Quarterfinals of the Outrigger Big West Men's Volleyball Championship, the Matadors would finish the season ranked ninth. During the 2025 season, CSUN reached a season-high No. 7 national ranking a total of three times. After opening 2025 ranked No. 15 in the Preseason Coaches Poll, the Matadors steadily climbed in the rankings, culminating with a 12-2 record and a No. 7 national ranking on Mar. 3. That marked the highest national ranking for the Matadors since also ranking seventh on Jan. 15, 2018.
One week later, CSUN received a season-high 302 points (Mar. 10) to also rank seventh where it would remain until Mar. 17. The Matadors, ranked in all 17 national polls during the 2024 season, were ranked in all 17 polls during the 2025 season (7th three times, 8th, 9th five times, 10th, 12th, 13th, 15th three times, and 16th twice).
Over the course of the 2025 season, the Matadors defeated a total of eight ranked teams including No. 5 Hawai'i (Apr. 4), No. 8 Grand Canyon (Feb. 19), No. 10 UC San Diego (Apr. 10, Apr. 12), No. 10 Pepperdine (Feb. 8), No. 15 Lewis (Mar. 20), No. 19 Princeton (Mar. 12), and No. 20 George Mason (Feb. 2).
The CSUN women's water polo team finished the 2025 season at 16-13 overall. CSUN was ranked in the Collegiate Water Polo Association top-25 national poll in 12 weeks of the season.
The Matador water polo team would be ranked as high No. 16 on the year, marking the highest the program had been ranked nationally in a decade. CSUN remained ranked in the top-20 through the first three weeks of the season after winning seven of its first eight matches. The team would also collect a victory over nationally-ranked Villanova in a 17-14 decision at Matador Pool on March 2.
CSUN's 2025 season marked the third consecutive year the water polo program had recorded a winning season, the first for the program since notching three straight winning years from 2013-2015. Head coach Matt Warshaw also moved up to second place in school history in all-time coaching victories at 117, just 11 off the pace from breaking the program's all-time win mark.
#GoMatadors