Northridge Ends 19-Match Drought Against UCLA

If John Price is walking around today a little more upright, there is a good reason.

The UCLA monkey he had been carrying around on his back for six years has finally been forced to relocate.

In 19 Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. matches before Saturday night, UCLA had beaten Cal State Northridge 19 times. Price had sat through 11 of those defeats as the Northridge coach, although each year he saw his team draw a little bit closer to winning.

Saturday night, his Matadors finally caught and passed UCLA, beating the Bruins in four games before a season-high crowd of 2,632 at Northridge.

The scores were 16-14, 15-11, 16-17, 15-11.

“I never really felt there was a monkey on my back because UCLA is so good,” Price said. “But geez, it’s about time.”

The victory pulled Northridge (14-4, 7-3 in conference play) into first place in the WIVA DeGroot Division, a half-match ahead of UCLA.

The Bruins (8-6, 7-4), who have won 13 national championships, defeated Northridge in four games earlier this season at UCLA, but they were playing catch-up from the outset this time.

Game one was a classic. Neither team could take more than a two-point lead until UCLA broke away for a 12-9 advantage. The Bruins built their lead to 14-10, but frittered away five game points and allowed Northridge to climb back into the game.

Northridge, ranked fourth in the country, closed to within 14-11 when Coley Kyman stuffed Carl Henkel. An ace by Neil Coffman, who had a game-high 11 kills, made it 14-12, forcing a Bruin timeout.

Ken Lynch served up an ace to cut the lead to 14-13, then UCLA’s Dan Landry hit long to knot the score at 14. With the crowd on its feet, Raphael Tulino rocketed a serve off Aleksandar Babic’s shoulder for a 15-14 CSUN lead.

The Matadors won the game on their first game point when Kyman sent a spike off Landry’s block attempt.

Northridge led the entire way in the second game, building an early 6-3 lead and expanding it to 12-6 when David Swatik of UCLA hit wide on a cross-court spike attempt. Kyman stuffed a Swatik spike for a 14-9 CSUN lead, but the Matadors squandered three game points before Landry hit wide cross-court for the final point.

Game 3 was almost as intense as the opener. Northridge rolled to a 4-0 lead, but UCLA scored the next eight points.

The Matadors mounted a comeback of their own, scoring four consecutive points and tying the match, 8-8, when Kyman blocked a Swatik spike into an empty back row.

The Bruins, the No. 5 team in the nation, came back to score four of the next five points for a 12-9 lead.

Coffman heated up at this point, rifling three consecutive kills at UCLA to tie the score at 12. But Coffman hit long on an ensuing spike and Swatik sent a kill off Mike Mesnik to put UCLA ahead, 14-12.

The Matadors tied the score at 14 on a cross-court smash by Coffman, and the score was tied again at 15 and 16, before UCLA won on its fourth game point when Scott Herdman blocked a Coffman spike into an empty back court.

Northridge never trailed in the final game. The Matadors broke away from a 10-10 tie and assumed a 14-11 lead when Tulino sent a cross-court serve past a diving Henkel. Tulino, who had 15 kills and three service aces, sealed the victory moments later when he smashed a spike off Mike Sealey.

Coffman led Northridge with 39 kills and Lynch added 23. Kyman added 17 kills.

“It’s been right there for so long,” said Coffman, holding two fingers close together. “And we finally got it.”