CSUN Rallies to Return to NCAA Volleyball Final

Until somebody reminded her earlier this week, Karen Lontka didn’t remember that the Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team played Nebraska Omaha last season.

After Friday night’s rematch at Cal State Sacramento, the CSUN captain and All-American middle blocker will probably never forget the determined Lady Mavericks.

In an emotion-draining 2 1/2-hour match, Northridge outlasted Omaha, 16-14, 13-15, 10-15, 15-13, 15-13, before a crowd of about 350 in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II championships.

The come-from-behind victory moved the No. 1-ranked Lady Matadors (37-5) into tonight’s championship match against No. 2-ranked UC Riverside (28-7), a 15-4, 16-14, 15-8 winner earlier Friday over North Dakota State.

The difference in the Northridge-Omaha match was simply this: CSUN scored last.

“They were a good team last year, but I thought we were a head above them,” CSUN Coach Walt Ker said of the Lady Mavericks (44-4), who were swept by Northridge in last year’s semifinals. “This year, we were a hair above them.

“This ranks up there with the top matches my program has ever been involved in.

“It was amazing. We could never put them away. They have great competitive instincts.”

So does Northridge, which could have lost in three games.

Northridge fell behind in the first game, 5-0, trailed 13-8 at one point and never led until Lontka’s ace made it 15-14. Franci Bowman then nailed an overpass to win the game for CSUN.

In the second game, Northridge fell behind again, 4-0, and didn’t lead until Omaha’s Allie Nuzum spiked a ball into the net, putting Northridge ahead, 10-9.

The Lady Matadors increased their advantage to 13-9 before Omaha scored six straight points, the last on an uncontested spike down the middle by Lori Schutte.

In the third game, CSUN never led.

Northridge, which started sluggishly in the first three games, put the pressure on Omaha early in the final two games.

“Our serving started to kick in in the fourth game,” Ker said.

The Lady Matadors opened a a 10-4 lead in the fourth game before Omaha rallied to tie it at 13-13 on Anna Garcia’s spike into the net.

CSUN then got a crucial sideout when Omaha got mixed up and let a pass fall to the floor.

Angela Brinton and Chris Tedeschi combined on a block to put CSUN ahead, 14-13, before Brinton’s dink off the block fell out of bounds and forced the deciding game, in which CSUN again jumped out to an early lead.

It was 7-6 when three straight kills by Sue Darcey put CSUN ahead 10-6. Omaha seemed to be finished when Northridge went ahead, 14-10, but three straight errant spikes by Garcia, one on a sideout, cut the Matadors lead to 14-12. An ace by Schutte made it 14-13 before a block by Tedeschi gave CSUN a sideout.

Darcey’s kill on an overpass by Omaha’s Angie Oswald ended the match.

In the first semifinal game, Riverside needed only 75 minutes to blow past North Dakota State.

The Highlanders got a scare in the third game when Annie Kniss, the Division II Player of the Year, fell to the floor, clutching her left ankle and sobbing.

After the match, Kniss said she had landed on a teammate’s foot.

“I can’t walk on it right now,” said Kniss, who was carried from the gym by teammates. “But I’ll play tomorrow. I guarantee it.”

Last year, she played in the regionals with a broken hand.

Notes

Less than 100 spectators were in the stands for the 5:30 p.m. start of the UC Riverside-North Dakota State match. Tournament officials planned to add extra seats if Cal State Sacramento had qualified, upping the capacity to about 2,000. . . . What happened to the No. 3-ranked Hornets? Cal State Sacramento Coach Debby Colberg told the Sacramento media that her team was the victim of “blatant cheating” by the line judges in its regional final loss last week at North Dakota State. Colberg said Friday that the head referee was “incompetent,” intimidated by the crowd and was thus unable to control the line judges. And the line judges? “They knew exactly what they were doing,” Colberg said. Two of the line judges were former North Dakota State players and one of them made the trip this week to Sacramento. Still, North Dakota State Coach Donna Palivec said the criticism is unfair. “I hate to see something like this taint what was a big accomplishment for us,” she said. Of the line judges in question, Palivec said: “They’d be the type that, if there was a question, they’d go the other way. If I were to go back tomorrow and tell them what’s being said, they’d be crying. They’d be devastated . . . They’d probably throw up.”