WIVA Tournament Begins With Northridge on a Roll

By all rights, the Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team should remember UC Irvine’s Bren Center with all the affection that Buster Douglas remembers the floor at Caesars Palace.

It was at Bren Center, after all, that the Matadors were floored in five games by lightly regarded Irvine--a loss that eventually would cost Northridge a share of the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.’s DeGroot Division championship.

Since then, however, Northridge has risen from the deck to knock off 11 of its past 13 opponents heading into today’s match at 2:30 p.m. against seventh-ranked Pepperdine in the first round of the WIVA’s postseason tournament at UC Irvine.

The reason, according to all parties involved: newfound team unity.

“As it turned out,” Matador Coach John Price said, “that loss might have been the best thing for us. Before, we had six guys out there sometimes going six different directions. Now everything we do we do more as a team.”

Lately, winning is what the Matadors have done most often. Northridge (21-6) has won six in a row and is ranked third in the nation behind USC and Cal State Long Beach.

Top-ranked USC (25-1), the defending national champion, will play DeGroot Division champion UCLA (15-7) today at noon with the winner earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Final Four in Honolulu, May 3-4. The loser of that match drops into the tournament semifinals and will play the Northridge-Pepperdine winner on Thursday at 5 p.m.

The tournament championship will be decided Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with the winner becoming the wild-card candidate from the West and the likely recipient of the last invitation to the Final Four.

Northridge, which last season made its first postseason appearance since 1984, has never gone to the Final Four. Already this season, Northridge has defeated Pepperdine twice and split with UCLA, its most likely opponent should the Matadors advance to the semifinals.

“I’ve always thought we could compete physically, athletically, with anyone,” Price said. “The difference is that before we won or lost as individuals.

“Against Irvine, we found out we weren’t good enough to play like that. We found out we need each other. We’re pretty good as individuals but a lot better when we play together and support each other.”

As a result, Northridge is a team peaking at the right time.

“We’ve always had a bunch of good athletes, but now we’re doing what we have to do to win a national championship,” said Matt Unger, the Matadors’ sophomore setter.

The Northridge attack is led by Neil Coffman, a senior outside hitter who was third in the WIVA in kill average (6.69) during the regular season.

Coffman, a third-team All-American in 1990, also leads the team with 202 digs.

Playing opposite Coffman is Mark Root, a senior transfer from Pepperdine who is among the team’s best passers. In the middle, Coley Kyman, Raphael Tulino and Ken Lynch give the Matadors a trio of big and physical blockers.

Kyman, a 6-foot-5 sophomore, leads Northridge with 113 block assists and is tied with Tulino with 29 solo blocks.

Tulino, a 6-5 senior who played on the same Chatsworth High team with Root and Coffman, leads the nation with 32 service aces.

“Right now we’re in a position where we can be pretty successful in the tournament,” Price said.