Matadors Set Sail for Islands : Volleyball: Waffling Northridge’s cruise to postseason begins before sellout crowd in Hawaii.

The Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team hit a low point in its regular-season finale this week, but Coach John Price said his players should be ready for the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoff Saturday at Hawaii.

The Matadors played horribly in Tuesday’s straight-game loss to UC Santa Barbara, which wasn’t surprising considering the team has been inconsistent all season.

Price, however, expects his “good team” to show up at Honolulu’s sold-out, 10,000-seat Special Events Arena when Northridge faces the Rainbows, who last week won a pair of MPSF matches against the Matadors. Hawaii is ranked second in NCAA Division I.

“I got to believe that come playoff time, they’ll have the fire and they’ll get up and they’ll be fired up,” Price said. “I hope.”

The Matadors, ranked ninth, placed fourth in the MPSF’s tough Mountain Division with an 11-8 record. Northridge is 16-11 overall.

Top-ranked UCLA (24-1, 17-0) won the division, Santa Barbara (16-8, 14-5) placed second and Brigham Young (13-7, 12-7) third.

Senior middle blocker Oliver Heitmann leads Northridge with a .384 hitting percentage.

“I like our chances against Hawaii this time,” Heitmann said. “I know the whole team is fired up. I really think we can beat them.”

Northridge middle blocker Jon Baer, who missed the last two matches with the flu, is expected back in full force.

The 6-foot-6, 240-pound senior has a team-high 509 kills.

“I’ve been in a daze lately,” Baer said this week. “But I feel much better and I expect to play well against Hawaii.”

The Rainbows (17-5, 15-4) won the MPSF’s Pacific Division. Hawaii is led by Yuval Katzand Jason Olive. Katz has a .400 hitting percentage that includes 529 kills. Olive is hitting .397 with 332 kills.

If Northridge defeats Hawaii, it will meet the winner of Saturday’s match between Long Beach State and Santa Barbara on April 29 at UCLA. Price won’t look ahead since he believes that’s what his team did in the loss to the Gauchos.

“The thing about Hawaii is that we know them real well,” Price said. “We felt we had chances both nights last week, but they played the best they’ve played all season against us. I think the key is getting the first game over there.”

* Live coverage of Cal State Northridge’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoff match against Hawaii will be aired Saturday on radio station KVEG 840-AM at 10:30 p.m.