Northridge Snaps Losing Streak by Spiking Pepperdine

The Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team is like a big roller coaster, with plenty of ups and downs.

On Tuesday night against Pepperdine, the worst team in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, CSUN was hot and cold in a 15-12, 6-15, 15-13, 15-11 victory.

The victory snapped a three-match losing streak for the Matadors, who were ranked third nationally last week but went into the Pepperdine match ranked No. 8.

“Mentally this win is huge,” CSUN Coach John Price said. “We just needed to win badly.”

Even if it was against a struggling team. The 13th-ranked Waves (4-7, 1-7) have lost seven of eight matches, including four in a row. Pepperdine’s only conference victory is a three-game sweep of Loyola Marymount, the second-worst team in the MPSF.

Of course, CSUN (5-4, 4-4) was defeated twice by Loyola Marymount last week. The Matadors are in fourth place in the seven-member MPSF, but sometimes play like they belong at the bottom instead of the middle.

This match was no exception. The Matadors’ top three hitters combined for 21 of the team’s 23 errors. “We were pretty tentative,” Price said.

After winning a tight first game, CSUN tied the second, 3-3, before Pepperdine went on a 10-1 run.

CSUN held small leads through most of the third game and the teams were tied four times before the Matadors finally won.

It wasn’t until the middle of the final game that CSUN finally came alive. The Matadors fell behind, 7-1, but something must have clicked at that point.

CSUN went on a nine-point run to take a 10-7 lead and didn’t trailed again. Pepperdine threatened by holding off three match points at 14-11, but Collin Smith smacked a shot down the middle on match point.

“I think it made a big difference that they served well in games three and four,” Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy said. “But both teams were giving up points in bunches throughout.”

CSUN senior middle blocker Oliver Heitmann and Pepperdine senior outside hitter Lee Bradford each had 31 kills. Bradford was an All-Western State Conference player on Pierce College’s 1992 state champion team.

Jon Baer made 21 kills and Jason Hughes added 20 for the Matadors.

“Tonight was so important because it gives us our confidence back,” Hughes said.