CSUN, Hewitt Survive Scare, Beat Long Beach in 5 Games

It was fright night at Cal State Northridge, but both the Matador men’s volleyball team and Craig Hewitt, its senior middle blocker, managed to survive.

Or, in Hewitt’s case, flourish.

Northridge, comfortably in cruise control and seemingly on its way to a four-game victory, staved off a rally to down Long Beach State, 11-15, 15-5, 15-7, 10-15, 15-5, Saturday night in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match before 1,192.

The victory, coupled with Stanford’s upset of UCLA on Friday, vaulted the Matadors into a first-place tie with the Bruins in the MPSF’s Mountain Division. Northridge is 14-4, 8-2 in conference matches. UCLA is 12-2, 8-2.

Long Beach, which fell 1 1/2 games back of Stanford in the MPSF’s Pacific Division, is 10-8, 6-3. Olympian Brent Hilliard had a match-high 35 kills for the 49ers, but aside from a 10-point run in the fourth game, Long Beach could muster little else.

Meanwhile, Hewitt, who watched Jamal Thompson come off the bench to spark Northridge’s win over top-ranked Pepperdine on Wednesday, re-established a stranglehold on his position.

Hewitt had a match-high 12 blocks to go along with 14 kills and a 57.9% attacking ratio.

Asked if Thompson’s performance against the Waves helped inspire his effort, Hewitt said, “I’d say so. I’ve been nervous the last couple of practices.”

He would have been more nervous in the deciding fifth game had he known how close Northridge Coach John Price had come to replacing him with Thompson.

With the match heading into a point-per-play format, Price confessed that he considered making a switch in the middle.

“I think we might be a little bit better of a side-out team with Thompson so I almost made the change,” Price said. “Boy, am I glad I didn’t.”

In the fourth game, Long Beach was down, 10-5, chipped away to pull within three, then reeled off eight consecutive points with Jason Stimfig serving to force a final game.

Price attributed Northridge’s temporary ineptitude to a lapse of concentration.

“We can’t (afford to) do that,” he said. “When the switch goes off sometimes you can’t count on it working again.”

Fortunately for Northridge, it did. As fast as the 49ers turned the tables on Northridge, the Matadors turned them right back at the start of the fifth game.

Hewitt accounted for two points in the deciding game--one on a solo block of Hilliard, and the other when he won a tip at the net with Hilliard.