Matadors Figure It’s Their Turn to Win

Natural progression has Cal State Northridge winning the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball tournament, which will begin today at UC Irvine’s Bren Center.

Northridge was eliminated in the first round three years ago. The following year, the Matadors fell in the second round. Last year, Northridge lost in the final.

“There’s only one step left for us,” Coach John Price said.

But it’s a lulu. A tournament championship would be Northridge’s first and would likely earn the Matadors an invitation to the NCAA final four, May 7-8 at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.

First up for Northridge is a match against USC today at 1:30 p.m. The fourth-ranked Matadors (19-9) lost both matches to the fifth-ranked Trojans (12-9) this season. The Trojans lead the series against the Matadors, 26-1.

USC won five consecutive matches before being swept by Cal State Long Beach on Friday.

“It would be nice to send them home, like they did to us three years ago,” Coley Kyman, Northridge’s All-American middle blocker, said of the Trojans. In a first-round match in 1990, USC defeated Northridge in five games--the last by a 17-16 score.

In other first-round matches today, Pepperdine (17-5) will play San Diego State (17-12) at 11 a.m., Long Beach (16-12) will meet Brigham Young (15-9) at 4 p.m., and top-ranked UCLA (21-3) will face Stanford (18-4) at 7 p.m. The winner of the UCLA-Stanford match automatically advances to the final four.