CSUN Overcomes Slow Start, BYU in Volleyball

It is little wonder that John Price’s hair is beginning to recede, because the Cal State Northridge volleyball coach worries about everything--even winless teams such as Brigham Young University.

“An 0-12 team scares the . . . . out of me,” Price said before his team took the court against BYU on Friday.

Price need not have fretted. After a slow start, the Matadors dispatched the Cougars in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. DeGroot Division match at CSUN, winning in four games. The scores were 15-17, 15-9, 15-7, 15-2.

“Generally, an 0-12 team is pretty bad, but I knew they were pretty good,” Price said. “My concern was that our players would look at their record.”

Northridge (8-2, 4-1 in the WIVA DeGroot Division) jumped to a 10-5 lead in the first game but then seemed to lose its concentration against BYU (0-13, 0-5), which won just one WIVA match last season, its first in NCAA play.

The Cougars rallied to tie the score at 11 and built a 14-12 lead. CSUN staved off three game points before Neil Coffman hit long from the back to give BYU the game.

“We’ve been starting slow,” said Coffman, who had a match-high 24 kills. “BYU is kind of like us--really emotional. When they get going, it’s real hard to stop a team like that.”

The Cougars took a 6-3 lead in Game 2 before Northridge finally found its rhythm. CSUN scored 12 of the next 15 points and won the game when BYU’s Scott Waddell was wide with a cross-court smash.

Picking up momentum with each game, Northridge broke away from a 4-4 tie in Game 3 and scored seven consecutive points to assume a commanding lead. Coley Kyman (20 kills and a .594 hitting percentage) had the game-winner when he stuffed Patrick Sinclair’s spike.

The Matadors allowed BYU to score the first point of Game 4, then reeled off 14 points in a row, winning the match when Warren VanSchulkwyk hit long.

Northridge got 18 kills from Raphael Tulino and 13 from Mark Root.