CSUN Explosion Sinks Pepperdine in 4 Games

John Price strode through the masses Tuesday night at Cal State Northridge looking for all the world like a man about to explode with joy.

Price, the third year coach of the Northridge volleyball team, had just watched his Matadors win a historic Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match against Pepperdine, 15-10, 15-11, 3-15, 15-13.

“Inside, I’m ready to blow up like Mount St. Helens,” said Price, whose team beat Pepperdine for the first time. “I don’t look ecstatic because I’m always looking ahead. I probably need to live a little bit more in the present so I can go a little nuts.”

Price would do well to forget about the past. As he promised before the season began, this is a new era at Northridge. The Matadors (8-10, 3-5 in conference play) proved they were competitive when they beat UC Santa Barbara and extended UCLA to five games before losing to the Bruins. But Northridge proved it was for real with a win that ended a 14-match losing streak against the fourth-ranked Waves (6-6, 4-4).

“We just finally relaxed,” said outside hitter Robert Samuelson, who had a team-high 21 kills and 11 blocks. “We felt confident because of the way we played against Santa Barbara and UCLA. Now we think we can win every match.”

All of a sudden Northridge is packing its gym with noisy fans. And just as suddenly the Matadors are making noise in the conference.

“They have a shot at a playoff spot if they keep knocking teams off,” Pepperdine Coach Rod Wilde said. “They’ve got the physical talent, but the mental talent is the toughest thing to develop. That’s what we’re going through right now.”

CSUN went ahead, 6-1, in the decisive fourth game, but the Waves closed to within 9-8 when Andrew Greskovics hit long. But with Tom Ribarich serving after a sideout the Matadors vaulted to a 14-8 lead on two kills by Samuelson, a Ribarich ace, a Pepperdine error and a Samuelson block.

The Waves came back to make the score 14-13, but Robert Keller served long, giving Raphael Tulino a chance to serve for match point. The Matadors took the point and the match on a net violation by Pepperdine’s Geoff Hart.

Unlike the first time the teams met when Pepperdine swept the Matadors in three games, CSUN did not jump out to an early lead in the first game and then succumb.

Instead, the Matadors played it close all the way through.

The score was 10-10 with Jeff Campbell serving when the Matadors began their run. Campbell’s first serve was an ace and a kill by CSUN’s Greskovics followed a hitting error by Pepperdine’s Hart to make the score 13-10. Campbell then served another ace before the teams traded sideouts.

CSUN won the first game when Greskovics hammered a kill down the middle.

The second game was a similar story. The score was 10-10 and Jeff Krieger was serving for Northridge.

Campbell, who had reentered the game after suffering a slight bruise to his right leg two points earlier, put the Matadors ahead, 11-10, with a kill and the Waves contributed two hitting errors to put Northridge on top, 13-10. Campbell, who had 14 kills, added another point and after trading sideouts Samuelson served game point, which the Matadors won on a net violation by Pepperdine’s Keller.

In the third game, CSUN jumped out to a 3-0 lead before being shut out by the Waves, who scored the next 15 points.