Northridge Advances to Title Match : Lady Matadors Serve Notice to Portland State

Alissa Evans looked across the net and saw it in the eyes of the players from North Dakota State.

It was still early in the fourth game of Cal State Northridge’s national semifinal match against the Bison, but the subtle redness that Evans spied in the eyes of her opponents could just as well have been flashing neon.

Evans, a junior outside hitter, turned to teammate Kathleen Dixon.

“It’s over,” Evans said. “We have them.”

With bulls-eye serving that produced 14 aces, Northridge defeated host North Dakota State, 15-8, 12-15, 15-9, 15-7, Saturday night in the NCAA Division II championships at Bison Sports Arena.

Fifth-ranked Northridge (33-11), the defending national champion, will play top-ranked Portland State (34-5), which defeated Regis, 15-13, 15-1, 15-9, and is the only school to win back-to-back Division II titles (1984 and 1985) in women’s volleyball.

Saturday night’s win avenged a loss to second-ranked North Dakota State in September that Northridge Coach Walt Ker followed with a lecture concerning the importance of accurate serves.

The message apparently sank in.

Keira Middleton had 4 aces and a match-high 16 kills. Evans also had 4 aces to go with 9 kills and a match-high 24 digs. Dawn Eto, a back-row specialist, had 3 aces and seemed to spur a Northridge surge every time she entered the match. Karen Langston had a pair of aces and Franci Bowman added 1.

“They put the ball on the court,” said Bison hitter Janet Cobbs, the Division II Player of the Year. “They never missed.”

Actually, Northridge’s .226 attack percentage paled in comparison to Friday night’s .385 against Central Missouri State. But it was good enough against a North Dakota team that hit just .106 and was stymied by its own bad passing and Northridge’s blocking scheme. Cobbs was limited to 8 kills.

Northridge seemed to thrive on the noise produced by the crowd of 2,750, most of whom warmed up for the match by watching the North Dakota State football team’s nationally televised victory over Portland State earlier in the day that gave the school its second NCAA football title in 3 years.

“We just took the energy and said, ‘Yeah, that’s for us,’ ” said Dixon, who had 8 kills. “The more the noise, the more we got pumped up.”

Middleton and Eto led Northridge to victory in the first game when they served back-to-back double aces that broke a 7-7 tie.

North Dakota State won its only game by scoring the final 4 points on Northridge hitting errors.

The Bison committed 8 errors of their own in the third game and were victimized by 4 Northridge aces and their own poor attacking in the decisive fourth game.

Today, Northridge meets a Portland State team that has dealt the Lady Matadors 2 losses this season.

“We’re looking at this (tournament) as a triad,” Northridge Coach Walt Ker said. “So far we’re 2 for 2 with 1 more at-bat to go.”