San Diego State Just a Number for CSUN : Volleyball: Matadors play better than they have against other ranked teams, but No. 21 Aztecs (7-1) hand them ninth defeat in 10 matches.

There are two ways of looking at San Diego State’s 15-6, 15-12, 10-15, 15-4 victory over Cal State Northridge in a nonconference women’s volleyball match Tuesday night.

The negative way is that the Matadors fell to 1-9 and suffered their sixth consecutive loss for the first time since 1981.

The more positive approach is that Northridge played significantly better against the No. 21-ranked Aztecs than they had in previous matches against No. 1 Stanford, No. 7 Penn State and No. 12 USC, all of which ended in 3-0 losses.

Lian Lu, the Matadors’ second-year coach, and Amy Gillis, a sophomore outside hitter from Saugus High, chose to take the latter view.

“We are learning,” Lu said. “Today, the blocking situation was much better than against USC.”

The Matadors held San Diego State (7-1) to a .173 hitting percentage and hit .104 themselves.

A percentage of .104 might not seem like much, but it sparkles in comparison to marks of .000 against Penn State and USC, and .011 versus Stanford.

Northridge benefited when San Diego State benched setter Andrea Clark, middle blocker Carrie Mapes and outside hitter Julianna Cezar in game three to give some substitutes a chance to play. But the Matadors had begun to control the Aztecs’ hitting during the second half of game two, when San Diego State was playing with its full arsenal.

“[The game-three victory] will be important to us because it shows us what we can do against these top teams,” Gillis said. “It’s just another step along the way to getting where we want to be by the end of the season.”

Gillis had 10 kills and eight digs. Carrie Kapfenberg added 12 kills and eight digs, and Erin Balderama had 14 digs.

For San Diego State, Martina Vitkova had 19 kills, five service aces, seven digs and seven blocks. Jennifer Hamilton, who played at Royal High, added 10 kills, nine digs and 11 blocks.

Northridge plays Southeast Missouri State on Friday in the Idaho tournament.