CSUN Beaten in Four by BYU

Not so slowly and very surely, the men’s volleyball season at Cal State Northridge is starting to dissolve.

Facing the prospect of missing the postseason for the first time since 1989, the Matadors faced third-ranked Brigham Young, which was depleted but not defeated.

The Cougars beat the Matadors, 15-13, 7-15, 15-8, 15-9, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match Thursday night at Northridge.

In the race for the eighth and final playoff spot, the Matadors (13-11, 7-9 in MPSF play) remained behind Hawaii (7-7 in MPSF play).

The road to the playoffs gets more congested for the Matadors, who must beat No. 7 Long Beach State on Saturday, No. 1 UCLA on Thursday and No. 8 UC Santa Barbara on April 15.

“Realistically, I think we need to win all three,” Northridge Coach John Price said. “But we’re not going to win them if we can’t play under pressure.”

Coaches of all three upcoming Northridge opponents were in attendance Thursday. They saw a team that didn’t necessarily play poorly, but couldn’t perform under pressure.

The 14th-ranked Matadors held BYU’s Ryan Millar, the former Highland High standout, to only 22 kills and a .173 hitting percentage.

But Richard Lambourne picked up the slack with 19 kills and Kennan Vance had nine block assists for the Cougars (17-3, 12-3).

Millar burned Northridge for 37 kills in the last meeting, a four-game BYU victory on Feb. 26.

But the Cougars, who were top-ranked at the time, are different in many ways.

They have dropped two places in the rankings, shuffled setters, lost starter Oswald Antonetti because of a broken finger and moved Millar, a middle blocker, to Antonetti’s opposite-hitter spot.

“It seems like each week there is something else,” Millar said.

The changes didn’t appear to hurt the Cougars in the first game. They trailed, 7-2, before establishing themselves at the net with seven blocks.

Still, the Matadors held a 13-12 edge but couldn’t finish, wasting 15 kills by Chad Strickland.

“If we win game one, it’s a whole different match,” Price said. “We didn’t, so it doesn’t matter.”

The second game was nearly identical, with Northridge taking an 8-1 lead before BYU started a run.

This time, Price called time out twice and the Cougars only got as close as 9-7.

The Matadors then went on a spree of their own, getting two kills each from Strickland and Collin Smith and two block assists from Junior Mosones, a freshman setter from Channel Islands High who started his eighth consecutive match at middle blocker.

The third game was not Millar time. He had two kills and four errors. Instead, it was Lambourne who did the damage, delivering nine kills for BYU.

Timeouts didn’t work for the Matadors this time. They fell behind, 12-5, rallied for two points when setter Dan Nash and outside hitter Dan Szymanski entered the game, but still lost.

The Matadors fended off match point four times in the fourth game, but followed three sideouts with service errors.

Now comes the ultimate test--winning three in a row.

“It’s my senior year and I plan on winning all three,” said Smith, who finished with 26 kills.