CSUN Reaches Point of No Return in Loss to USC

With the school’s impending move to NCAA Division I, there were those who have wondered aloud exactly how long it would take before Cal State Northridge battled the likes of USC down to the wire during the postseason playoffs.

Wednesday night they got their answer.

Northridge, which already plays a Division I schedule in men’s volleyball, met USC at the CSUN gym in the first round of the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. playoffs. And, after more than 2 1/2 hours of action, the Trojans escaped with a victory on the match’s final possible point before a noisy partisan Northridge crowd.

USC, ranked second in the nation, defeated the Matadors, 12-15, 16-17, 15-8, 15-10, 17-16, when Dave Derocher’s hit went through the block attempt of CSUN’s Neil Coffman and off the arm of Ken Lynch for the deciding point.

“It seemed like the ball went right through my hands,” Coffman said. “I can see it in slow motion, only I see a block going straight down. But it went over me.”

And with it went CSUN’s chances for an improbable upset.

USC (23-4) will meet top-ranked Cal State Long Beach tonight at 7:30. Long Beach (25-6), champion of the WIVA’s Wilson Division, received a bye into the semifinals.

In the other semifinal, fourth-ranked Stanford, a 15-13, 8-15, 15-5, 15-4 winner over UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday, will meet third-ranked UCLA (22-4), champion of the WIVA’s DeGroot Division.

The teams advancing to Saturday’s conference championship match both will likely earn invitations to the Final Four at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

USC was playing without hitters Bryan Ivie and Leon Devaney, who were both out with sprained ankles.

In the first two games against CSUN, the Trojans were also without the services of middle blocker Kevin Shepard, who had a 102-degree temperature.

But when CSUN turned the heat up by winning the first two games, Shepard was inserted into the lineup and the Trojans’ blocking improved.

Northridge, which hit at .478 and .373 in the games it won, fell to .261 and .314 in its third- and fourth-game losses.

The final game was played in a quick-score format in which a point is scored on every play. Neither team led by more than a point until USC took a 13-11 edge. The Trojans had match point at 14-12, but Lynch scored for CSUN to start a string of three consecutive points for a 15-14 lead.

A service error by Lynch on match point for Northridge allowed the Trojans to tie.

CSUN’s Neil Coffman hit wide for USC’s 16th point, but Jason Perkins hit long for USC to again tie the score and bring the match to its 17th and deciding point.