Matadors Smiling After Loss to USC

Rarely do players and coaches look happy when their record falls to 0-5, but on Tuesday night members of the Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team looked ecstatic after losing their home opener, 15-12, 15-10, 15-10, to powerful USC.

“Our fighting spirit was really great tonight, and we are coming together as a team,” said Northridge sophomore middle blocker Crystal Newquist. “We’re finally starting to jell.”

The overmatched and unranked Matadors battled hard against the Trojans, who are ranked 13th nationally in the latest coaches’ poll. Northridge held leads in the first and third games and challenged USC (3-1) in all three games with a solid offense and steady defense.

Experience made the difference in the match. The Matadors start five new players, four who have never played Division I volleyball before this season.

The Trojans have practically their entire starting lineup intact from last season’s team that reached the NCAA West Regional semifinals and finished with an 18-9 record.

“Now you see why I’m very happy with our performance tonight,” Northridge Coach Lian Lu said. “Our offensive system is very stable. We just need to adjust our blocking system a little bit and our defense.”

The Matadors opened the first game with a 3-0 lead and after falling behind they tied twice--at 8-8 and 10-10--before USC sealed the game with a 5-2 run.

The Trojans held small leads throughout most of the second game, but none big enough to write off the Matadors. The score was tied, 10-10, before USC took the game with five unanswered points.

Northridge could have won the final game, but the Matadors fell apart down the stretch. They took a 6-2 lead but allowed USC to come back.

The Matadors were able to side out easily after that, but they only managed to score once.

Outside hitter Nancy Ma, a sophomore transfer Zheng Zhou University in China, led Northridge with 10 kills. Middle blocker Getty Dimitrova, a junior transfer from the College of Southern Idaho, had nine kills.