CSUN Sweeps Penn St. : College volleyball: Matadors advance to NCAA final with 15-2, 15-5, 15-11 victory.

The answers to two points of discussion were revealed Friday night as Cal State Northridge and UCLA quickly eliminated the remote possibility of any team east of Los Angeles playing for this year’s national championship in Division I men’s volleyball.

First off, there is a reason to play tonight’s third-place match. Why should the NCAA pay to fly two teams across country to play only one match? It has, after all, been 11 years since a team from anywhere other than the West Coast advanced to the final.

Secondly, about that 20-4 record Penn State took into semifinal action against Northridge: The prevailing thought was, the Nittany Lions were either very good or their schedule was extremely soft.

The schedule was soft. Northridge took only 1 hour 40 minutes to dispatch Penn State, 15-2, 15-5, 15-11, setting up a showdown with UCLA tonight in the title match at 7:30.

The top-ranked Bruins (23-3) overwhelmed Ohio State, 15-4, 15-4, 15-2 in Friday’s other semifinal. The Buckeyes (28-9) will play Penn State at 5:30 tonight in that ever-so practical third-place match.

Penn State was simply overpowered from both the middle and the outside. Outside hitter Ken Lynch led fourth-ranked Northridge in kills for the fourth consecutive match, rifling off a match-high 22. From the middle, Coley Kyman had 15 kills and a match-high six blocks for the Matadors.

Along with teammates Axel Hager and Craig Hewitt, Lynch and Kyman also helped snuff out the threat of David Muir, Penn State’s All-American outside hitter.

Though Muir led the Nittany Lions with 12 kills--Ramon Hernandez, who had 11 kills, was the only other Penn State player in double figures--his attacking percentage was a horrendous .032.

“I didn’t perform and I let my team down,” Muir said. “There’s no way you can win if your go-to guy doesn’t perform.”

Northridge’s defense might have had something to do with that. John Price, coach of the Matadors, noted after playing against Penn State last season that Muir was especially effective off a back-set, hitting down the line.

“We took that away right from the start,” Price said, “and I think that frustrated him.”

Otherwise, Price said he did not know what to expect from Penn State.

“We thought either they were a very good team and they haven’t proved it yet, or they were not that good a team and no one had exposed it yet,” Price said. “I think we got something in the middle.”

Penn State hit at a .158 percentage compared to .404 for Northridge. The Matadors dominated the entire match with the exception of a short stretch in the third game when they appeared to lose interest.

Tom Peterson, Penn State’s coach, said his team suffered for lack of better competition during the regular season. Northridge, he said, was a “team primed right now.”

“They have the competition every week,” Peterson said. “Every weekend they play hard, hard matches. My feeling is, if we played them 10 more times every weekend, they don’t dominate like they did.”

Price agreed. To a point.

“You put Penn State in our league and I think they’re right up there with everyone else,” he said. “Nothing beats competition for getting better. It’s not really fair to Penn State, but they didn’t have to get better this year. They could stay right where they started and go to the final four.

“In our league, you have to get better every night, every practice.

“Otherwise, you’re not going to be here. It’s an advantage if you survive it. It’s a disadvantage if you’re not going to the final four.

“You can’t get better unless you have to. It’s human nature.”

Northridge, for the first time in any Division I sport, now is going one step further than that.

“I really expected to be there,” Price said of his team’s date in the championship match. “I’ve gone over it in my head a million times.”

The Matadors can rally around their choice of cliches--either beginner’s luck or the third time is the charm.

The Matadors have won seven matches in a row, but they are 0-2 against the Bruins, having been swept in three games both meetings. UCLA also has tradition on its side, having never been defeated in 21 playoff matches on its home floor.

Even so, Kyman said because of that tradition and the expectation of a big crowd, he wanted to play the Bruins. “That’s what college athletics is all about,” he said during a press conference after the Penn State match.

Price interrupted him.

“Personally,” he said, “I’d rather play Ohio State.”

* UCLA BREEZES

Top-ranked UCLA crushed Ohio State in three games to advance to the final at 7:30 tonight against Cal State Northridge. C5