Northridge Gets Lesson From Toppel

Cal State Northridge learned Friday night why Curt Toppel was freshman player of the year in men’s volleyball in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation last season.

The 6-foot-8 outside hitter pounded 17 kills as fourth-ranked Stanford needed only an hour and a half to dispatch the Matadors, 30-12, 30-25, 30-28, at the Matadome.

Toppel, from Loyola High, had four blocks and sophomore Billy Strickland, from Harvard-Westlake, added seven kills and three blocks.

Toppel had five kills and two blocks in the first game, which he ended with an ace.

Northridge (3-5, 0-3 in MPSF play) fell behind, 13-7, in the second game but got to within 13-11 on four consecutive kills by outside hitter Joe Nargi. The Cardinal answered with a 6-3 run and maintained at least a three-point lead the rest of the way.

“I don’t think they did anything special, it was all us,” Nargi said. “We didn’t take care of our side of the court and you have to do that under these rules. Falling behind doesn’t mean much because you can come from behind quickly.”

Nargi, a 6-6 outside hitter from Taft, had 24 kills and Eckhard Walter had eight kills, three blocks and three aces.

Northridge never led in the first two games under the rally-scoring format.

Game three was tied, 13-13, until Stanford (4-0, 2-0) took control with a 7-3 run. The Matadors pulled even, 27-27, on three consecutive kills by Eckhard and one by Nargi.

After each team scored a point, Raoul Williams served long to give Stanford match point and Nargi’s spike was blocked by Toppel and Brett Youngberg.