Northridge Wins Mind Games and Volleyball Match

The Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team has spent as much time in the classroom as it has practicing on the court the past week.

No, the Matadors aren’t teetering on the brink of academic disaster. They’re just trying to make sure their brains no longer thwart their brawn.

“Last week we met and decided to get tough mentally,” Northridge’s Neil Coffman said. “We’ve always had what it takes physically. Now we’re taking the mental part of it as a challenge.”

Tuesday night at the Northridge gym, the Matadors survived a practice test. Given ample opportunity to let its emotions get carried away, Northridge instead turned the tide on Pepperdine’s Waves, 15-11, 10-15, 15-9, 15-4, before 827.

The victory kept the Matadors (15-4) on top in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.’s DeGroot Division. Northridge, ranked fourth in the nation, is 8-3 in conference matches, one match in front of UCLA.

Third-place Pepperdine fell to 8-6, 5-6 in WIVA play.

After playing even in the first two games, Northridge and Pepperdine were locked in a two-point match in the third game when comments started passing under the net at a speed approaching that of a thundering jump serve.

The principles involved were Brian Merrick of Pepperdine and Raphael Tulino of Northridge, both seniors and both middle blockers.

It ended with Tulino being restrained and both players receiving yellow cards, or warnings. Trailing, 6-4, at the time, Pepperdine scored the next four points.

The first in the string came when Matt Unger of CSUN set--guess who?--Tulino on the ensuing serve.

“I knew that’s what would happen,” CSUN Coach John Price said after the match. “And Ralph barely kept it in the building.”

Point Pepperdine. And another, and another, and another.

Said Price: “Two weeks ago, we collapse right there.”

Instead, Northridge scored nine of the game’s final 10 points, then routed the Waves in the final game.

“We did all the little things tonight,” said Coffman, who had a match-high 21 kills. “We were covering, playing defense, serving tougher and passing.”

Indeed, Northridge’s attack was varied in the kill department as well. Of the starters, only Unger, the setter, didn’t reach double figures in kills.

Particularly impressive was Mark Root, a senior outside hitter who transferred to Northridge two years ago after he wasn’t welcomed back at Pepperdine.

Root had 15 kills, played stellar back-row defense and was Unger’s go-to guy on several occasions.

“It’s his old team so I tried to pump the ball to him a little more,” Unger said. “He did a great job.”

Northridge has won its past four matches against Pepperdine since Root’s transfer. “He (Unger) knew what this match meant to me. We had the passing going so he was able to do what he wanted to do.”

Which was spread the wealth around. Coley Kyman added 20 kills, Tulino had 17 and Ken Lynch 13 for the Matadors, who hit .384 as a team.

“Matt got real creative because of the way we were passing the ball,” Price said.

Unger, a sophomore, said that might be the way of the new-look Matadors.

“We just went out and took care of business tonight,” he said. “We talked about UCLA being a big win and how important it was that we stay focused.”

Northridge now has defeated its two closest divisional rivals within a span of four days. Next up, however, is Cal State Long Beach, second to USC in the WIVA’s Wilson Division. CSUN will visit Long Beach on Saturday.