Northridge Loses a Match Made in Portland State

In a match more respectable but no less unpleasant for Cal State Northridge than last year’s final, Portland State defeated the Lady Matadors Saturday night to win its second straight NCAA Division II women’s volleyball championship.

Once again, the Vikings, representing the City of Roses, had become a thorn in CSUN’s side. The scores were 15-9, 15-13, 11-15 and 15-8.

As they were a year ago, when they swamped CSUN in a three-game final on the same floor, the more polished Vikings were too consistent, too disciplined and simply too tenacious for the Lady Matadors. They were, as the capacity crowd of 2,500 chanted at one point, the “Green Machine,” even if they weren’t as dominant this year.

A sign hanging under the green-and-white banner commemorating last year’s championship called it, “Dynasty Part II: The Vikings.”

Not that Northridge didn’t have its moments. It led, 12-9, in the second game and, even after blowing that one, jumped on the Vikings in the third.

But, overall, Portland State was too strong. The Vikings’ .260 attacking percentage wasn’t particularly impressive, but it was more than twice that of CSUN’s .100.

Heather Hafner and Shelli Mosby of Northridge, Lynda Johnson and Theresa Huitinga of Portland State, Kathy Knudsen of Nebraska and Bonnie Beard of Sam Houston State were named to the All-Tournament team.

Before the match, CSUN Coach Walt Ker described the Vikings as “very conservative, but very efficient.

“The critical thing for us,” Ker said, “will be, ‘Can we put the ball away faster than they can keep it in play? Can we dig their first ball, transition it and put the ball away?’

“They’re a very good long-rally team because they don’t make errors. Hopefully, we can stay in the rally long enough to get a chance to pound the ball.”

More often than not, they couldn’t.

It was a tribute to the Vikings’ superior passing and ball control. Coach Jeff Mozzochi may have lost three starters from last year’s team, but he welcomed back All-Americans Lisa Couch, Theresa Huitinga and Lynda Johnson, the Division II Player of the Year. Portland State rarely makes unforced errors. In fact, in the final it made only two service errors in the four games. The senior trio brought Portland State to the Final Four in each of its four seasons.

Johnson put down 32% of her kill attempts in the final, while Huitinga put down 31%. CSUN’s Hafner was successful on only 14%, but Mozzochi said his team wasn’t keying on the three-time All-American.

Said Mozzochi before the match, explaining his strategy: “We pretty much feel that at this point in the season, if we take care of our side of the net and don’t make a lot of unforced errors, we’re going to be in a good situation.”

A good situation, indeed.

Portland State hasn’t lost a home match in two years, a streak that reached 32 Saturday night. The victory was its 23nd straight overall.

For CSUN, which had won 21 straight, it had been a bumpy road to the championship match.

Ker expected to have four starters back from last year’s team but, two days before the season’s first match, middle blocker Chris Tedeschi was ruled academically ineligible. Tedeschi, whose .468 attacking percentage was the highest in last year’s Final Four, completed 23 units during the 1984-85 school year, one shy of the NCAA minimum. Another middle blocker and returning starter, Lynette Colter, left the team during the season.

Still, Ker said earlier Saturday that he was not surprised to have his team in the final.

Losing Tedeschi and Colter, he said, “was a real blow to us,” but he called this year’s team the deepest he’s had in seven seasons at Northridge. And he had All-Americans Mosby and Hafner around which to build.

Of Mosby, the feisty setter from Alemany, Ker said: “She’s one of those people who truly loves to win, but even more so hates to lose.”

Mosby could have graduated last June, but returned, in part, because she wanted another shot at Portland State.

With Mosby and Hafner leading the way, CSUN’s younger players developed. Karen Lontka, who redshirted last season because of a knee injury, plugged a hole in the middle and became an honorable mention All-American. Francie Bowman, expected to redshirt, became a fixture in the starting lineup. Said Ker: “We had some girls really come around who weren’t even in our playing plans and maybe not even in our team plans.”

They won their third straight California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship and rolled into the Final Four for the fifth straight year. “They’re not the power they’ve been in the past,” UC Riverside Coach Sue Gozansky said Friday night after their semifinal victory over Nebraska Omaha, “but they’re still better than most of us.”

Ker admitted that the Lady Matadors had some weaknesses.

They didn’t catch up to them, though, until they met Portland State.