Small Wonder

A fierce aversion to losing enabled Matt Unger to become perhaps the nation’s best beach volleyball player under 6 feet tall.

He abhored getting beat while at Cal State Northridge in the early 1990s, whether the game was top-level NCAA volleyball or backyard Wiffleball. And he still has trouble stomaching a loss after seven years on the pro beach tour.

So to lose the entire sport, to stand by and see professional beach volleyball spiked and discarded like a piece of litter blowing on the sand, was impossible for Unger to bear.

Eighteen months ago, the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals was in serious crisis. The men’s tour was insolvent and in jeopardy of folding as the women’s circuit did after the 1996 season.

Unger felt compelled to do something drastic.

Surprising his friends and shocking the Northridge professors who recalled his lukewarm attention to studying and his manic hijinks as a founding member of a group of rooters called the Matamaniacs, Unger became an AVP board member.

Not that the post required a suit and tie. The entire board is comprised of beach professionals. But it meant Unger was taking a mature view of the big picture.

The board fielded offers from several investors and sold the AVP to an investment bank in New York. Former professional player Dan Vrebalovich and sports marketing veteran Billy Berger were hired to run the organization.

Slowly, surely, the tour is getting back on its feet. The fourth tournament this year began Thursday and will continue through Sunday at the California Beach Bash in Hermosa Beach.

Unger and partner Stein Metzger will face Paul Baxter and Mark Paaluhi at 9 a.m. today in a second-round match.

“We had to believe in somebody who knew the sport, and Dan and Billy brought that,” Unger said. “You must have a love of the sport to make it successful. There’s a passion that’s necessary.”

Unger knows all about desire. How else could someone 5-10 with his toes in the sand flourish in a sport where height is valued the way it is in basketball?

Unger, who still holds the Northridge career and season assist records, was an excellent setter in indoor volleyball. But on two-man beach teams where versatility is paramount, his success is remarkable.

Between prize money and sponsorships, Unger has earned about $80,000 a year since leaving Northridge in ’93 without a degree. He works on occasion for his uncle’s automobile dealership during the winter, but otherwise life indeed is a beach.

“It’s a lot of hard work, but I know that’s relative,” Unger said. “I’m obviously smaller than other players, but nobody can take away what I’ve done. It’s been a great life.”

Unger’s first taste of beach volleyball came while growing up in Santa Monica.

“It’s always what I wanted to be,” he said.

The indoor game was an afterthought. His older brother, Adam, played at UC Santa Barbara and Unger figured volleyball was a good way to zip through college. Every year, former Northridge coach John Price tried to recruit a better setter than Unger, and every year Unger wound up starting.

“He and Coley Kyman were the leaders on the team,” said Coach Jeff Campbell of Northridge, who was an assistant when Unger played.

“Whatever we were doing, on or off the court, Matt put the team and winning ahead of all other decisions he was making. If there was a problem and it affected us winning, he dealt with it swiftly.”

Northridge fielded its best team during Unger’s senior year in 1993, advancing to the NCAA Division I final before losing to UCLA. Unger set a school mark with 2,083 assists and totaled 5,732 in his career.

Unger, Kyman and other volleyball players did their best to help other Northridge teams win, too. Wearing wigs and face paint, the Matamaniacs taunted opponents and officials unmercifully at basketball, baseball and softball games.

“The way it started was a bet during a softball game between the volleyball and basketball teams,” said Bill Ortgiesen, a former Northridge volleyball player and Unger’s college roommate. “The loser had to dress up funny and go to a game and root the other guys on.

“It was so much fun we kept doing it. Matt and Coley were the leaders of the group.”

At a Northridge reunion, Unger undoubtedly will be tabbed as the guy who grew up the least.

And he knows it.

“Looking back on times of your life, Northridge was one of the best,” Unger said. “The camaraderie, the teams rooting for each other. I still try to tap into that spirit.”

Now he’s paid to play. Unger has traveled several times to Brazil for tournaments and recently returned from Saudi Arabia, where the entire country is a beach.

He defeated Karch Kiraly at the Manhattan Open two years ago and is a crowd favorite at tournaments from New Jersey to Chicago. Unger plays a finesse game, moving the ball around and outlasting taller opponents through sheer fire.

No wonder Unger joined the AVP board. He doesn’t want a good thing to end.

“The last few years haven’t been as exciting because there is less money and fewer people,” he said. “It’s been tough. But things are looking up. This will be an important season.

“I’ve got some years left. I want to see this become successful again. That’s just in my nature.”