Northridge Puts a Crimp in Ratelle’s Plans for Men’s Volleyball Playoffs

Ray Ratelle has more free time than he expected--or wanted.

Ratelle, Long Beach State men’s volleyball coach, had hoped to be hard at work this week on a plan to defeat UCLA in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinals. He had hoped to be hard at work until the final men’s volleyball match of the season. He had hoped to be smiling after the last match too, content that his hard work paid off in another national title.

Truth is, Ratelle thought he would be a happy guy. But even the best-laid plans of determined coaches go awry.

Cal State Northridge defeated Long Beach in the opening round of the playoffs Saturday night at the Pyramid, 9-15, 15-4, 8-15, 5-15. The 49ers are done, so all Ratelle has left to work on is feeling unfulfilled.

“I was in shock,” Ratelle said. “It was really devastating. You have to go on, and I guess it’s going to get easier, but I don’t know. I mean, this was really hard.”

Yes, for many reasons.

The 49ers entered the match ranked second nationally in the USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches Assn. and Volleyball Magazine polls. They had big advantages in talent and depth over the No. 7 Matadors, led by senior All-American middle blocker Tom Hoff.

They had swept No. 3 UCLA, 15-10, 15-10, 15-13, April 12 at the Pyramid. They blew the Matadors off the court in two regular-season matches.

“A lot of us still don’t really know what happened,” hitter Martin Wagner said. “Northridge took it up a couple of levels, and we didn’t do what we needed to do to match them, and we just watched it all slip away.”

And, most of all, the 49ers were on a mission. After losing to UC Santa Barbara in the first round last season, the 49ers approached this season with a single-minded purpose. They set the bar at giving Ratelle and Long Beach a second national championship--the first coming in 1991--and Ratelle said they worked as hard, if not harder, than any group he’s had.

“The seniors set the tone from the first day of conditioning,” Hoff said. “You’re judged on how you did in your final match, and we all [wanted] to win our final match.”

On Saturday, though, none of this mattered. The Matadors didn’t care.

“From our standpoint, we can’t look at the season [as a success],” said Ratelle, whose 15th 49er team finished 21-6.

Ratelle still isn’t in the mood for deep analysis of the devastation, but some of the problems were present on the surface. The Matadors were effective in containing Hoff and Wagner, and the 49ers simply weren’t as sharp as usual. They sure could have used hitter Geoff Cryst, who suffered a broken fibula in his left leg during a match against Northridge on March 15 at the Pyramid, and hasn’t played since.

“I was real concerned about losing Geoff Cryst,” Ratelle said. “I didn’t know when it would catch up to us, but we definitely missed him on Saturday night. They did a good job of controlling Wagner and Hoff and they basically ignored the rest of our hitters.”

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Go figure: The 49er softball team leads the Big West (27-16, 15-5). Yet, Long Beach is ranked No. 23 in the USA Today/National Softball Coaches Assn. poll, way behind teams in its conference.

Cal State Fullerton is ranked ninth and Nevada Las Vegas 10th, respectively. So, what’s the deal?

“I don’t get it,” 49er Coach Pete Manarino said. “I know the coaches get together and vote, but I don’t understand exactly how that works.

“We beat [UNLV] three out of four games, and they’re ranked ahead of us. It’s hard to understand.”

Especially since Long Beach has won 21 of its last 25 games. And Manarino doesn’t buy the coaches’ party line that “polls don’t matter.”

“Sure it matters,” he said. “I think they should reward the teams that deserve it.”

49er Notes

The 49er men’s volleyball team set three all-time individual school records and two single-season school records. Senior middle blocker Tom Hoff was selected first-team All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, senior hitter Martin Wagner was selected to the second team, senior middle blocker Neil Mendel made the third team and junior hitter Geoff Cryst was an honorable mention pick. . . . Junior softball pitcher Tammy Dietrich leads the Big West with a 1.10 earned-run average. Long Beach has the lowest team ERA (1.38). . . . Wayne Morgan, new men’s basketball coach, has not selected his staff yet. Morgan is said to be considering Clyde Vaughan, the 49ers’ national recruiter under former Coach Seth Greenberg, for a position. Assistant Matt Hart is under contract until the end of September.