COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL WIVA TOURNAMENT : Northridge Swept Away in Bid for Final Four

The situation was similar, but this time Cal State Northridge did not have enough resolve or blocking to overcome a two-game deficit.

Unlike their remarkable comeback in Friday’s semifinals against top-ranked Cal State Long Beach, the Matadors went meekly in Saturday night’s Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. tournament final, falling, 17-15, 15-7, 15-10, to Stanford before 1,066 at UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

The Cardinal (23-3) advances to the NCAA final four Friday in Muncie, Ind., while Northridge, which had never advanced to a WIVA tournament final, finished its season 19-12.

Going into the match, Northridge Coach John Price was concerned about Stanford’s quick hitting from the left and right sides.

His anxiety was justified; the Matadors rarely put up a successful block, particularly against Dave Goss who had a match-high 31 kills.

“It was very frustrating,” Price said. “It looked like we were lost out there. The players played hard, they just didn’t play smart. I didn’t feel we dug or blocked anybody.”

Northridge recorded only two block attacks, compared to Stanford’s 20, and the Matadors made 10 blocking errors compared to Stanford’s five.

Moreover, the Cardinal hit .494 to Northridge’s .395.

“We were having a rough time,” Northridge middle blocker Coley Kyman said. “And they were passing well and running those combinations (attack plays in which two hitters jump at the same time--one hits and the other is a decoy).”

In defeat, Kyman was exceptional.

On the third play of the match, he became the school’s all-time kill leader, surpassing Neil Coffman, who made 1,541 kills from 1989-91.

Kyman finished with 22 kills for a total of 1,562, and he was introduced after the match as the only unanimous selection on the WIVA first team.

Both teams started poorly, combining for 20 service errors and 12 net violations in a first game that lasted 57 minutes. The score was tied at 11 for 14 sideouts before Matt Unger’s ace gave the Matadors a 12-11 lead.

But it was short-lived. The score was tied at 12, 13, 14 and 15 before the Cardinal gained an upper hand, scoring its 16th point on Ken Lynch’s long kill attempt and closing it out on Unger’s mishandled set.

“It was a seesaw battle,” Kyman said. “We thought the whole match would be like that, but they took it to us.”

In Game 2, Stanford overcame a 3-2 deficit to build leads of 7-3 and 11-4.

Northridge finally responded with two kills by Axel Hager and a block by Lynch to cut the lead to 11-7, but after an exchange of sideouts the Cardinal regained the serve on a Northridge net violation.

Stanford took a 14-7 lead and CSUN held off two game points before the Cardinal blocked a kill attempt by Lynch.

In the decisive third game, Northridge fell behind 4-0, 11-3 and 14-8.