CSUN Takes Nap, Hawaii Takes Match

Had the Cal State Northridge volleyball team not slept through most of the fourth game, it might have beaten Hawaii in Saturday night’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match.

But the Matadors had a huge letdown and instead fell, 15-13, 7-15, 8-15, 15-9, 15-13, to the Rainbows.

The Matadors, ranked No. 8 nationally, fell to 10-8 overall and 6-6 in the MPSF. Hawaii, ranked 12th, improved to 9-8 and 5-5.

“It looked like we were kind of resting,” CSUN Coach John Price said. “We just dug ourselves a pretty big hole. I really don’t know what happened.”

The Matadors were on a roll after winning the second and third games. But they fell behind early in the fourth and didn’t catch up.

The Rainbows jumped to a 10-3 lead and at 14-6 CSUN woke up and scored three points, but by then it was too late.

Hawaii gave up the serve on three game points before sealing it when sophomore middle blocker Scott Faust blocked Oliver Heitmann’s kill attempt.

Heitmann, a 6-foot-7 junior middle blocker, led the Matadors with a match-high 29 kills.

“What you have here is two pretty young teams,” Hawaii Coach Mike Wilton said.

“Both played real good at times and both looked real lousy at times.”

The “good” part applied to both teams in the final game, which included rally scoring.

The teams were tied through most of the game until Northridge’s Jon Baer hit a shot into the net to give the Rainbows a 13-12 edge. Hawaii’s Curt Vaughan dinked the next shot over two Matador blockers for a 14-12 lead.

Collin Smith smacked a cross-court shot for the Matadors’ final point and Hawaii’s Jason Olive hit one down the middle to close out the match.

Baer, who doesn’t play often, was inserted midway through the second game and he gave the Matadors a much-needed spark.

The junior outside hitter had 19 kills and senior middle blocker Craig Hewitt added 15.

“(Baer) had a real good week of practice and I knew he would come in and help us out,” Price said. “He had a great game tonight.”

Hawaii was led by senior swing hitter Allen Masui (21 kills) and freshman hitter Nikolas Berger (18 kills).