Large Crowd Expected for CSUN Match

The last time the Cal State Northridge gymnasium was filled for a school athletic event, Jimmy Carter was President, leisure suits were in style and the Matadors had a good basketball team.

The year was 1978 and Northridge drew 3,100 to a regional basketball playoff game.

It could happen again tonight.

USC (11-0), the nation’s top-ranked men’s volleyball team, literally has brought the bleachers down for its Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match at 7:30 against third-ranked Northridge (9-2).

Usually, seating is provided at court level with a second level of bleachers remaining folded, but with the defending national champions on site, Northridge is making all seats available.

The Matadors have not defeated the Trojans in 21 tries, but they came close in their last encounter in the WIVA tournament semifinals at CSUN last season.

USC won, 12-15, 16-17, 15-8, 15-10, 17-16, in a match that came down to a deciding point, then went on to win its second national championship in three years.

However, there is a major difference between this season’s Trojans and the USC team that Northridge took to the limit last season: a healthy Brian Ivie at middle blocker.

Ivie played sparingly with an ankle injury last season. This time he comes in fresh off his most dominant performance of the season.

In USC’s four-game win over second-ranked Cal State Long Beach last week, Ivie, a 6-foot-7 senior, had match-high totals of 36 kills and 13 blocks.

“They have a good team, but in Ivie they have what no one else has,” CSUN Coach John Price said. “If he’s up for the match and playing hard, he’s almost impossible to stop. They go to him in big-point situations and as a result they win most of those points.”

Ivie leads the WIVA in blocking (2.29 average), service aces (13) and is second in kill average (6.57).

Northridge counters with Raphael Tulino, a 6-foot-5 middle blocker of relatively little renown who is enjoying his best season. Tulino leads the conference in hitting percentage (47.7%) and also has 13 service aces.