Matadors Complete Cleansing Process

Without any regard for the feelings of its opponents, the Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team is rapidly erasing the memories of last season.

The latest to disappear was the loss of both matches against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last year.

That was avenged Tuesday night, when Northridge completed a season sweep of the Mustangs with a 15-4, 15-4, 15-2, nonconference victory at home.

The Matadors (16-9) held San Luis Obispo to a negative hitting percentage of .074, a season low for an opponent. And the Matadors did it in 63 minutes.

Was this team really 2-29 last year?

Yes, but . . .

“It’s a totally different game, a totally different team,” said junior Amy Gillis.

“It’s nice to come out and prove ourselves. It’s common knowledge that everybody underestimated us this year.”

Knowing that it had lost to Northridge in four games last month, San Luis Obispo (12-13) shuffled its lineup and 6-foot-1 Trisha Jenssen was moved from the middle to the outside to have more height there.

It didn’t work. The Matadors out-blocked San Luis Obispo, 8-4.

Mustangs Coach Steve Schlick tried everything from time outs to constant substitutions, but Northridge remained unfazed.

“We play too stable,” Northridge Coach Lian Lu said. “We know each other.”

The Matadors, who had won six in a row against San Luis Obispo until last year, had respective leads of 9-3, 10-1 and 10-0 in the three games.

Junior college transfer Getty Dimitrova contributed nine kills and now has 392, the 10th-best single-season effort in Northridge history.

Dimitrova was successful on the quick set and the slide.

“She forced the defense to play different balls,” Schlick said.

Freshman Nicki Midwin, a starter on three consecutive state championship teams at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, was also impressive with nine kills.

With this tune-up out of the way, the attention now can be directed to the conference’s magic number.

The Matadors hold a three-match lead over Cal State Sacramento with four Big Sky matches remaining, putting the magic number at two.

If the Matadors defeat Weber State on Thursday and Sacramento on Saturday--both home matches--the title is theirs.