CS NORTHRIDGE VOLLEYBALL PREVIEW : Coach Sets Sights High : Outlook: John Price expects his men’s team to be much improved and make a strong bid for its first Final Four berth.

The Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team that will take the court today in the UC Santa Barbara tournament is remarkably similar to the one that pushed USC, the eventual national champion, to the last possible point before losing in the semifinals of the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. tournament last year.

There are two notable exceptions.

One is at setter, where redshirt sophomore Matt Unger has beaten out incumbent Gary Reznick.

The other, Coach John Price said, is that the Matadors should be better. A lot better.

Whether that turns out to be good enough to earn Northridge its first trip to the Final Four depends on the progress of the nation’s other top teams--USC, UCLA and Cal State Long Beach among them.

“Based on what everyone had last year, on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say we were about a 7 or 8 at the end of the season,” Price said. “On the same scale this year, I’d say we’re a 9.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s a fair scale to compare. I think just about everyone is going to be better.”

So for Northridge, the question becomes, how much?

“We’ve made a huge jump in our level of play,” said Price, whose team is ranked fourth behind No. 1 USC, No. 2 UCLA and No. 3 Cal State Long Beach in Volleyball Monthly’s preseason poll. “I think we have more room to improve than SC or some of the other teams, which of course is what has to happen.”

Northridge’s strength is its murderer’s row of hitters--sophomores Ken Lynch and Coley Kyman and seniors Raphael Tulino and Neil Coffman.

“I don’t think there are four guys around anywhere on one team that hit the ball harder as a group than they do,” Price said of the quartet.

Which is one reason why Unger has edged out Reznick for the starting nod at setter.

The key to CSUN’s attack, Price said, is the location of the set. Unger, while not quite the athlete Reznick is, can set the ball on a dime.

“With the hitters we have, we can tell the other side who is hitting and where they’re hitting it, but if our guys get it in a good location, they’re going to put the ball away,” Price said.

The other starter is outside hitter Mark Root, a senior transfer from Pepperdine.

Price said Root is playing dramatically better than he was at this stage a year ago.

“He came out last season out of shape, burnt out on volleyball and I think pretty much hating his life,” Price said. “Then he was always hurt. But he really worked with the weights and is healthy now.”

And so too are CSUN’s hopes.

In the 24-team Santa Barbara tournament, Northridge is in the same four-team pool with Cal State Chico, San Jose State and Calgary, a top Canadian team. The top two teams from each pool advance to the final eight Saturday and if all goes as expected, the Matadors will be in the same bracket of four with USC and UCLA. A series of matches between seeded teams will conclude that day.

“We’ll know more where we are after the next two days,” Price said. “All the pieces are there for us. It’s just a matter of how they all come together.”