CSUN Loses, Keeps Hoping for Berth in Volleyball Playoffs

A pot of playoff gold awaited the Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team when it played host to fifth-rated Hawaii on Saturday night.

But by the end of the match with the Rainbows, the pot was empty.

Northridge was rebuffed for the second consecutive night in its attempt to secure its first Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. postseason tournament berth, losing this time to Hawaii in four games. Hawaii won, 13-15, 15-5, 15-11, 15-6.

The Matadors (11-9, 6-7 in conference play), who remained in second place in the DeGroot Division, will try again Wednesday to clinch a tournament berth when they travel to the University of Santa Barbara. Only the top three teams in each of the two WIVA divisions advance to the postseason tournament.

“We made too many mistakes,” Northridge Coach John Price said. “They’re strong and they’re good jumpers. There just weren’t a lot of places for us to go as attackers.”

Northridge started well enough against Hawaii’s all-senior lineup, getting eight kills each from Coley Kyman and Neil Coffman in taking the first game. The game was tied six times, and CSUN weathered six net violations before Kyman took a Gary Reznick set and sent the game-winning kill down the middle.

The sixth-ranked Matadors, who have three WIVA matches left, trailed just, 4-3, in Game 2 before Hawaii (15-7, 10-4) scored 11 of the next 13 points.

The Rainbow roll continued in the third game as Hawaii raced to a 7-0 advantage. The lead swelled to 10-1 before Northridge made a run, closing within 11-8 behind Kyman, who had eight kills in the game and 27 overall.

The teams split the next six points, and Hawaii took the game when Damien Hardy stuffed Raphael Tulino’s kill attempt for a point.

Northridge, which lost its third consecutive match, scored the first point of Game 3 on a net violation, but Hawaii, currently in fourth place in the Wilson Division, ran off the next eight to assume control of the game.

Coffman finished with 23 kills for Northridge.

Carlos Briceno had 27 kills for Hawaii and Adam Lockwood added 22.