CSUN Receives Dressing Down From Irvine in Volleyball

Volleyball coaches Bill Ashen of UC Irvine and John Price of Cal State Northridge are contrasts in dressing styles.

Ashen comes to matches attired in Hawaiian print shirts, stone-washed jeans and moccasins; Price is a shirt-and-tie man.

And, until recently, both coaches’ teams were in contrast to each other as well.

But Irvine, which entered Friday night’s match at Northridge mired in last place in the DeGroot Division, turned in a blue-collar effort, upsetting the sixth-ranked Matadors in five games in a Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match.

The scores were 13-15, 15-8, 15-5, 9-15, 15-11.

The loss prevented Northridge (11-8, 6-6 in the DeGroot) from clinching its first WIVA postseason tournament berth. The Matadors will try again tonight when they meet Hawaii at 7:30.

“I wasn’t surprised at all,” Price said. “We have a young team, and if they don’t learn from this, they’re in trouble. From my perspective, it looked like Irvine had more desire than we did, and to me, that’s inconceivable when you have an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot.”

Northridge, which has lost two consecutive matches, started fast, jumping to a 5-0 lead in the first game, but the Matadors had to weather a late Irvine charge before winning on the ninth game point on Mark Root’s service ace.

Irvine (7-11, 2-11), which upset Cal State Long Beach last week, bolted to a 7-1 lead in the second game. Northridge closed to 10-8 on Coley Kyman’s service ace, forcing an Anteater timeout.

But Irvine won the next five points, winning the game on Mike Minier’s service ace.

It was more of the same in the third game as Irvine took a 9-1 advantage. The Matadors never got back into the game and lost it when David Pettker hammered a cross-court kill on the first game point.

Northridge, led by Neil Coffman, bounced back in the fourth game, moving out to a 7-1 lead, but Irvine rallied and cut the advantage to 10-8. Coffman, who had seven kills in the game and a team-high 22 overall, scored three consecutive CSUN points on two hard smashes and a dink, then combined with Kyman to stuff-block Steve Florentine’s shot, giving Northridge a 14-9 lead.

Irvine took the early lead in the fifth game, conducted under fast-scoring rules in which a point is scored on every serve. The Matadors got to within 13-11 when Minier hit wide, but Florentine stuffed a Coffman spike for the match-winner moments later.

“The Hawaii match is a huge match for us now,” Price said. “Hawaii has its back against the wall. If we both come out fired up, it’s going to be a war.”