CS Northridge Splits Pair of Matches in Tournament : Women’s volleyball: After defeating San Diego, Matadors fall to Cal Poly SLO in first day of their inaugural invitational.

All at once Friday, the Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team posted its second victory of the season and left Coach Walt Ker disappointed.

It was a mere warmup to a bigger letdown, however.

Northridge defeated San Diego, 15-17, 15-8, 15-6, 15-10, in the first match of the inaugural Northridge Invitational. Despite the victory, Northridge’s fleeting “state of readiness” concerned Ker.

A few hours later, in its second match of the day, Northridge made Ker’s remarks prophetic. The Matadors (2-4) stumbled badly from the start and despite a late rally were upset by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 15-8, 15-3, 5-15, 15-10.

Northridge will play Cal State Fullerton at 12:30 p.m. and UC Irvine at 8 p.m. today in the final day of the round-robin event.

“So far, our mental doesn’t match our physical,” Ker said. “It’s the single most important factor in sport and we need to make some really big strides in terms of asserting ourselves more on the court.”

Serving problems cost the Matadors in the first game against San Diego when they committed eight of their 16 service errors. But after struggling to a 6-6 start in the second game, Northridge broke away. The Matadors continued to outplay San Diego throughout the third game and much of the fourth.

Northridge began the fourth game with a 10-0 run before San Diego adjusted its lineup and pulled to within, 13-10.

“I put in all my fighters,” San Diego Coach Sue Hegerle-Snyder said. “They really fought hard and really pushed to make everything count. It was just a little too late of a push.”

Nancy Nicholls put away the next point for Northridge, and when San Diego mistakenly called Ana Kristich’s final serve out, Northridge celebrated.

Patty Fitzsimmons led the Matador attack with 17 kills, and Karen Scholl was the top defender with 20 digs. San Diego could muster only 43 kills (.138 hitting percentage) and 58 digs compared to Northridge’s 72 kills (.260 hitting) and 88 digs.

“(Northridge) was definitely the better team out there today,” Hegerle-Snyder said. “(They) kept us out of our game and they got us distracted.”

That wasn’t enough for Ker.

“There were a lot of plays where I just don’t think we were super tense and ready to go after a ball,” he said.

Nonetheless, complacency didn’t cost Northridge the match. At least, not the first one.

“We didn’t come out with that intensity,” Fitzsimmons said, “but we did a good job in the end coming out and taking care of business when we needed to.”

Kristich, one of two Matador freshman starters, contributed 13 kills and 17 digs against San Diego--second on the team in both categories.

“This week has been so much fun to watch (Kristich),” Ker said. “I felt that probably every single night this week she stepped up another plateau.”

In the second match, Northridge mustered a hitting percentage of just .139. Missy Clements had a team-high 11 kills, the lone Matador player to crack double figures. However, Clements was just 11 for 43 (.070 percentage).

It was contagious. In the first game, Northridge hit just .077 and fell off the map completely in the second, when it hit .000. “No one played well and we were outplayed defensively by a long shot,” Ker said of the second match.

In other tournament action, Cal Poly defeated UC Irvine, 13-15, 16-14, 17-15, 15-7, and San Diego defeated Cal State Fullerton, 15-9, 15-13, 17-15.