CS Northridge Scores ‘Team’ Win in Rolling Past Loyola : Women’s volleyball: Bueche, Kristich help Matadors overcome absence of Nicholls in four-game victory.

Anyone who thought the Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team could be described as Nancy Nicholls and a supporting cast had better think again.

The Matadors were without the senior 6-foot middle blocker and team kill leader in a nonconference match against Loyola Marymount on Wednesday at Gersten Pavilion but rolled to a 10-15, 15-11, 15-9, 15-7 victory.

Led by the blocking of sophomores Debby Bueche and Ana Kristich and senior Shelly Swalec, Northridge controlled play at the net during the final three games.

“There are 12 athletes on this team,” said Bueche when asked about the absence of Nicholls, who was sidelined because of a sprained right ankle. “Put any six of us on the court and we can play. Nancy is our leading hitter, but we have 11 other players on this team who can also play.”

After Loyola scored the last six points to win the first game, Northridge (12-6) came from behind to win the second and third games and never trailed in the fourth game after roaring to a 6-0 lead.

The turning point in the match, according to Northridge Coach Walt Ker, came in the second game with Northridge trailing, 5-2.

“I told the girls during that timeout that we had to show, right then, with our body language and our play, that we were not going to give up in this match,” Ker said.

“We had to show that we meant business.”

Loyola (9-7) extended its lead to 6-2 after the Matadors’ timeout but Northridge fought back to tie the score, 6-6. Trailing, 10-8, Northridge scored seven of the last eight points to win going away.

The Matadors were down, 8-6, in the third game before charging back to score nine of the last 10 points.

“This was a really important win for us because Loyola is such a tough competitive team and because we showed how badly we wanted to win by coming back in that second game,” Ker said. “We just kept playing better and better as the match went along and that was very satisfying to see.”

Bueche, a 6-2 middle blocker from Thousand Oaks High who was in on seven blocks (one solo), concurred with her coach. “We started out a little slow,” Bueche said, “but we just kept fighting back. We were very determined to do that. We never gave up.”

Kristich and Swalec were each in on six blocks, with Swalec having two solo blocks. Dawn Krenik, a 5-7 outside hitter from Agoura High, had a team-high 16 kills and a .351 hitting percentage for Northridge. She also had a match-high 18 digs and two service aces.

Amy Moeller, a freshman outside hitter, had a match-high 19 kills along with 17 digs for Loyola.

With Nicholls listed as day to day, Northridge will travel to Northern California for matches against San Jose State on Friday and St. Mary’s on Sunday.