Northridge Drops Volleyball Match to Long Beach

The Cal State Northridge volleyball team suffered what could be a major setback in its drive for a berth in the NCAA regionals when 10th-ranked Cal State Long Beach beat the seventh-ranked Matadors, 1-15, 15-4, 15-6, 15-11, in a Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match Wednesday night at Long Beach.

“This really hurt us in terms of making it easy for ourselves,” said Northridge Coach John Price, whose team dropped to 11-13 overall and 4-8 in conference play. “I thought we had a real good shot at regionals, but now it looks like we’re going to need some help.”

Northridge dominated the first game against the 49ers, but then the tables turned as Long Beach won the second and third games without making an error.

The decisive fourth game lasted 40 minutes.

John Brajevic had 22 kills for Long Beach (14-11, 2-7), which hit .406 for the match. Robert Samuelson had 15 kills for the Matadors.

Northridge has conference matches remaining with Stanford, San Diego State (2), Loyola, UCLA and Hawaii.

The Matadors may be helped slightly by a schedule in which they play four of the remaining conference games at home. Northridge’s best conference finish was in 1986 when the Matadors went 6-14.

Northridge plays host to Ohio State in a nonconference match Saturday night and also will compete in a tournament at Ball State on April 8-9.