Northridge Volleyball Team Derailed by CS Long Beach

Competing in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. is a bit like pitching against the old New York Yankees: Even if you manage to get past Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri, here comes Babe Ruth.

Cal State Northridge, fresh from defeating nationally ranked UCLA, then Pepperdine, in its two previous matches, ran into second-ranked Cal State Long Beach on Saturday night.

And although the fourth-ranked Matadors had the 49ers on the ropes for a while, Northridge faltered down the stretch and lost the WIVA match in four games at Long Beach. The scores were 15-10, 3-15, 16-14, 15-10.

The defeat dropped Northridge to 8-4 in the WIVA DeGroot Division standings, a half-match ahead of UCLA.

Long Beach (22-2 overall) improved to 11-1 in Wilson Division play but still trails unbeaten and top-ranked USC.

“We had them in trouble, but we let them off the hook,” said CSUN middle blocker Raphael Tulino, who had 18 kills, six blocks and three service aces. “I think we let down a little bit on a couple of critical points, and they came back.”

Northridge (15-5 overall), which had a five-match win streak snapped by Long Beach, had leads of 5-2 and 7-5 in the first game as Coley Kyman recorded a game-high eight kills. But the 49ers tied the scored at seven and closed out the game by outscoring CSUN, 10-3, down the stretch.

Long Beach won the first game when Zachary Small smacked a spike off Kyman’s fingertips on the third game-point.

“We just made some mistakes in the first game,” Northridge Coach John Price said. “It wasn’t drastic, but it was enough.”

The Matadors dominated the second game, breaking away from a 4-3 lead to run off 11 consecutive points. Kyman, who had 23 kills in the match, stuffed Small for the winner.

Game three was a battle. Northridge rallied from a 9-3 deficit to take a 12-9 lead when Mark Root drove a spike through a pair of block attempts. But the Matadors couldn’t sustain the momentum and Long Beach tied the game at 13, then scored three of the final four points to win.

Northridge took a 6-1 lead in the fourth game, but Long Beach scored 14 of the next 18 points and won the match on the third match-point when Brett Winslow drove a kill off Ken Lynch.

“We just made a few too many mistakes--enough to lose a close match,” Price said. “But we’re getting better. We still feel pretty good about things.”

Neil Coffman had a match-high 24 kills for Northridge.

Brent Hilliard led Long Beach with 23 kills and Small added 20.