CSUN Confident After Volleyball Setback at USC

After dismantling Chapman College at home last week, the Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team talked about knocking off USC.

But Tuesday the Matadors lowered their aspirations when they were swept under by Pepperdine. They just hoped to escape Friday night’s match at USC with their limbs intact.

Turns out that CSUN walked out of USC’s North gym with a lot more than they came in with.

Despite losing their second consecutive Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match--this time by scores of 15-4, 12-15, 15-6, 16-14--the Matadors showed a level of confidence thought lost 3 days before at Pepperdine.

“I feel a helluva lot better than I did Tuesday,” CSUN Coach John Price said. “I feel frustrated because we had an opportunity to win on the road at SC but I’m not frustrated with our record.”

Price is feeling good after his team dropped to 3-5 overall, 0-2 in conference play? Well, part of that optimism stems from the fact that the Matadors’ last 2 losses were to the No. 5 and No. 2 teams in the nation.

And Price was also encouraged by the fact that CSUN led in the past 2 games and even served at game point 4 times in the fourth game before falling to the defending national champions.

“When those guys come to CSUN, we’re going to beat them in three straight,” setter Tom Ribarich said. “I’m serious.”

So was teammate Andrew Greskovics, who will count the days until the rematch at CSUN. “Home courts are like a seventh player out there,” he said.

But before the Matadors can sweep the Trojans at CSUN, they’re going to have to clean house a bit. They may talk a good game, but the Matadors couldn’t figure out how to finish one off at USC.

After falling behind, 12-8, in the fourth game, CSUN scored 6 consecutive points and was within a point of forcing a fifth game. Outside hitter Neil Coffman had 3 of his 16 kills in the Matador run.

“We tried to throw a lot of different approaches at them, especially on the quick hit,” Price said.

But with CSUN leading, 14-12, USC (10-2, 2-0) did the same thing to the Matadors to tie the score, 14-14, as 3 Trojans knocked down quick spikes. USC took a 1-point lead when the Matadors couldn’t return Tom Duke’s cross-court spike and won the match when Duke nailed a free ball into the center of CSUN’s court.

“I thought we’d win,” Ribarich said of the fourth game. “I thought after we won the second game the match would go 5 games. Even when we lost the third game we were right there with them.

“If we would have won the fourth game we would have taken the momentum into the fifth game.”

Bob Samuelson had a match-high 29 kills and 6 block assists for CSUN and middle hitter Ron Graening added 17 kills. USC, which had 4 players with 19 or more kills, was paced by middle hitter Bryan Ivie’s 23 kills.