CSUN Aims to Dominate in Big Sky Tournament

Having picked itself up from ground zero-and-eight, now the Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team is really reaching for the Sky.

The Matadors, who got off to an inauspicious 0-8 start this season, have won 20 of 22 matches since and are 20-10 going into the Big Sky tournament that runs today through Saturday at Northridge.

They captured the conference championship with a 16-0 record, their first title since moving to Division I.

Now they are after the conference’s lone automatic berth to the NCAA’s 48-team tournament.

“This is extremely important to the team,” Northridge Coach Lian Lu said. “This is everything. It’s end of season and everyone is improved.”

The Big Sky tournament includes the top six teams in the conference, with teams seeded according to their order of finish.

Sixth-seeded Northern Arizona (13-16) and third-seeded Eastern Washington (16-11) meet in the tournament opener tonight at 5, and fifth-seeded Montana (10-14) faces fourth-seeded Montana State (16-11) at 7.

On Friday at 5 p.m., second-seeded Cal State Sacramento (22-9) plays the higher-seeded team that survives today’s matches. Top-seeded Northridge plays at 7 p.m. against the other first-round winner.

The title match is slated for Saturday at 7 p.m.

Northridge lost its regular-season finale against Santa Clara on Tuesday, but the Matadors have been on a roll otherwise. They sandwiched eight- and 12-match winning streaks around their only losses--in nonconference matches against George Mason and Santa Clara--since the 0-8 start that reminded players all too vividly of the team’s 2-29 campaign in 1995.

“I think a few of us were like, ‘Oh no, not again,’ ” setter Heather Hofmans said. “We realized we could either let the season go or try to do something about it.”

The Matadors started winning and became the second team in Big Sky history to post a 16-0 conference record.

“I don’t think I could have called it, but I prayed for it. This has been more than I hoped for,” Hofmans said.

Northridge’s turnaround has been fueled largely by two foreign players, sophomore outside hitter Nancy Ma of China and junior middle blocker Getty Dimitrova of Bulgaria.

Dimitrova leads the team in kills (488), hitting percentage (.367) and blocks (137). Ma leads in digs (392) and is second in kills (428).