San Diego State Sidetracks CSUN in Volleyball

After defeating No. 1 Pepperdine and No. 8 Cal State Long Beach in its previous matches, Cal State Northridge stumbled Saturday against No. 12 San Diego State.

The Aztecs controlled the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match, 15-8, 15-10, 11-15, 15-11.

“There’s nothing in the stat sheet that can explain the loss,” said Northridge Coach John Price, whose team had not played since its victory over Long Beach last Saturday. “There are no excuses, no reasons. We just weren’t ready to play.”

One player in particular performed at a sub-par level. Senior middle blocker Ken Lynch, who last week smashed 38 kills against Pepperdine and 30 more against Long Beach, was not himself in the Aztecs’ Peterson Gym, although he finished second on the team with 24 kills.

Lynch, who missed five matches earlier in the year with back problems, once again is feeling pain shooting through his legs because of aggravated ligaments in his back.

“I didn’t play my best match,” Lynch said. “I’m struggling with my back again.”

Price noticed that Lynch and at least one of his teammates were not on top of their games. But he didn’t cite injuries as the culprit. He wondered about their mental preparedness.

“I didn’t think Axel (Hager) or Lynch were ready to play tonight,” Price said. “And we need those two guys to come through for us if we are to win.”

Hager, who leads the team in service aces, had only one ace.

“We just weren’t match sharp,” Price said. “It’s an attitude you have to have and we didn’t have the right attitude.”

So the match fell to SDSU despite the Matadors finishing with more kills (94-88) and more digs (44-38).

The fourth-ranked Matadors fell to 14-5, 8-2 in conference play. San Diego State improved to 11-10, 7-6.

Lynch did not want to sound as if the Matadors were making excuses. “We thought we were going to have to play a great game, we knew San Diego State was good enough to put it together, and they did,” he said.