From June 11 to August 11, GoMatadors.com will present the top CSUN Moments from the 2024-25 sports season. Today, we celebrate the Matador Beach Volleyball team, which set multiple program season records during a record-breaking 2025 season.
 

With a 3-1 win over Cal State Bakersfield in an elimination match at the 2025 Big West Beach Volleyball Championship on Apr. 25, the CSUN Beach Volleyball team set a new program record with its 18th win of the season. The win for the Matadors capped a record-setting season for CSUN, which included freshman Hannah Heflin setting a new program record for individual wins and head coach Ari Homayun becoming the all-time winningest coach in program history.

CSUN wound up reaching the semifinals of the 2025 Big West Beach Championship, where the Matadors fell to top-seed Cal Poly to cap an 18-17 season. The Matadors placed three student-athletes on the 2025 All-Big West Beach Volleyball Team as senior Tia Mendiola, freshman Dylan Hall, and fellow freshman Hannah Heflin were each named Honorable Mention All-Big West. Both Hall and Heflin were also named to the six-member All-Freshman Team.

For Heflin, the honor also capped a record-setting first season. After pairing up for the first time against Utah on Mar. 7, Hall and Heflin went on to lead all CSUN pairs with an 18-7 overall record. The duo finished 5-5 playing at the No. 3 position, 9-2 at No. 5, and 4-0 at No. 5. After debuting with a straight-set win over the Utes on the No. 4 court, Hall and Heflin went on the win their first nine matches. The pair ultimately went on to win 15 of their first 17 matches before finishing the season 18-7. With 18 wins, the duo ranks tied for third for most wins in a single season in program history.

Individually, Heflin won a CSUN single-season record 23 times in 2025. She won 18 times with Hall, three times paired with Morgan Gillinger, once with both Sophia Jarosz and Maleya Miles. Heflin set the single-season program record with her 22nd win of the season against Cal State Bakersfield on Apr. 8, while Hall finished her first season with 20 wins, which ranks fifth for a single season in Matador history.

After an injury-shortened 2024 season, Mendiola came back to win 19 times during her senior season. Paired with Julia Bazylevych, the duo won 16 times, which ranked third on the Matadors. Mendiola finished the season 9-14 playing on the No. 2 court, 7-1 at No. 3, 1-1 at No. 4, and 2-0 at No. 5. In addition to her 16-13 record with Bazylevych, Mendiola finished 3-3 with Ainsley Patrick(0-2 at No. 2, 3-1 at No. 3).

CSUN has now had 27 beach volleyball players earn All-Big West honors since 2016, the first season the conference began sponsoring beach volleyball.

More history was made on Apr. 8 as Homayun passed Noelle Rooke as the program's leader in coaching wins. Rooke amassed a 48-36 record from 2018-21 before Homayun picked up her 48th and 49th wins in the Apr. 8 tri-dual against Cal State LA and Bakersfield.

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