Pepperdine Rolls Over Northridge in Opener

Willie the Wave, the mascot for Pepperdine University athletic teams, wears a blue costume that includes a Have-a-nice-day smiling face and a snow-white, Elvis-like pompadour hair style that is supposed to represent a curling swell.

About the only thing that looked worse Tuesday night at Firestone Fieldhouse was the performance of the Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team.

The Matadors, ranked 10th in the nation, played an uninspired match and lost to fifth-ranked Pepperdine, 8-15, 12-15, 5-15, in a Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. opener.

The loss was Northridge’s 16th in 17 meetings with Pepperdine.

“I really thought going in that we had a chance to be competitive. We weren’t--at all, “ said CSUN Coach John Price, whose team lost a 2-set match to the Waves 2 weeks ago in the UC Santa Barbara tournament. “We just had a horrible match.”

Horrible was an adjective Price used several times in his post-match comments, especially in regard to his team’s serving. The Matadors (3-4) committed 16 serving errors.

Northridge’s attacking wasn’t much better. Bob Samuelson had a team-high 15 kills for the Matadors, who had a .189 attack percentage. Outside hitters Andrew Greskovics and Neal Coffman combined to hit at minus-.278.

“Usually you can survive when one guy doesn’t get the job done,” Price said. “But the other guys have to pick him up and we just didn’t do that tonight.”

The Matadors’ problems began early and grew worse as the match progressed.

Northridge took a 2-0 lead before Pepperdine scored 10 consecutive points behind 6-foot, 6-inch outside hitter Geoff Hart, a sophomore who finished with a match-high 19 kills.

“I think we fell apart,” Northridge middle blocker Raphael Tulino said. “We just saw we weren’t playing well and when the going gets tough, the going just ran away. We didn’t come back as a team. We got down.”

Despite 6 serving errors, Northridge played better in the second game, coming back from an 11-8 deficit to pull within 11-10 on a block by Coffman. Pepperdine, however, put the game away on kills by Hart and George Thompson.

Pepperdine (5-2) went ahead, 10-1, in the third game before ending the match on an ace by Dijon Douphner.

“They (Northridge) didn’t play as well as they’re capable. . . .,” said Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy, whose team made up for its own poor serving (15 errors) with effective attacking and blocking. “They never really got untracked. It looked like they were starting to sideout and score some points, but to our credit, we didn’t let them get untracked.”

Price and the Northridge players are hoping that a good practice today, with lots of serving, will prepare his team for its next WIVA match--a Thursday night date with second-ranked USC, the defending national champion.

“This might be a blessing in disguise,” said Tulino, who had 12 kills. “We showed where we were weak and we can build from here. I’m glad it happened our first game and not our 15th when we’re fighting for a spot in regionals.”