CSUN Battles Early, Succumbs Late to UCLA in Volleyball

It was early in the third game of Thursday night’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball match between Cal State Northridge and UCLA, yet one spectator had seen enough to predict that the Matadors were bound for a three-game loss.

UCLA had come from behind to win the first two games, but after watching Kevin Wong and Jeff Nygaard execute a textbook double block of Jason Hughes’ kill attempt to give the Bruins a four-point lead, the spectator turned to a friend and said, “This game is over, Bro.”

It took another 15 minutes to make UCLA’s 15-12, 17-15, 15-4 victory before 1,016 official, but the match could have been called when the Bruins extended a 6-2 lead in game three to 13-2 with Nygaard serving.

Nygaard, a 6-foot-8 junior All-American outside hitter, had three service aces during the run and three other serves that the Matadors had so much difficulty handling that they over-passed the ball to the net, leading to three easy kills--and points--for UCLA.

“I don’t know if it’s inexperience or what, but we played (poorly) from the start of game three,” Northridge Coach John Price said. “It was a 0-0 score to start the third game, but these guys were either thinking too much about what might have been or getting down on themselves because we came so close to winning the second game, but they sure didn’t play with any enthusiasm. I guess they decided they only wanted to play two games.”

UCLA, the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, swept Northridge in last year’s NCAA title match, but it looked as though the rematch might go four or five games as 11th-ranked Northridge held a 14-12 lead in game two before losing, 17-15.

UCLA tied the score, 14-14, but Oliver Heitmann (30 kills, .659 hitting percentage) blasted a kill out of bounds off a UCLA block to give the Matadors a 15-14 lead.

The ensuing serve by Peter Piexoto was wide right, however, and UCLA got two points to take a 16-15 lead.

After a pair of sideouts, UCLA (11-1, 9-0 in conference matches) clinched the match when Wong blasted a ball that Piexoto couldn’t handle.

Wong had 15 kills and 13 digs for the Bruins, who were led by Nygaard’s 36 kills, which equaled his career high. Nygaard had 17 kills in the first game alone.

Hughes had 15 kills for Northridge (7-5, 3-3). Collin Smith and Piexoto added 11 and 10 kills for the Matadors. Piexoto also had 14 digs.

After falling behind, 5-0, in the first game, Northridge battled back to take a 12-11 lead, but UCLA scored the game’s final four points to win, 15-12.