Portland St. Shows CSUN Same Look

Last year’s NCAA Division II women’s volleyball finalists met again Saturday night, but the rematch turned into a replay.

Cal State Northridge, which was swept in three games last December by Portland State, gave a better account of itself this time but still went down in three consecutive games at the Cal State Northridge tournament.

The Lady Matadors, who in December failed to reach double figures in any game against Portland State, lost this time, 15-4, 16-14, 16-14.

“It’s tough medicine to swallow, but we really need the medicine,” Northridge Coach Walt Ker said. “I felt we competed pretty well in games two and three, but it came down to fundamental execution, and they did and we didn’t.”

The Lady Matadors were never in the first game but took the early lead in game two and built their advantage to 14-12. But Northridge let three game points slip away and Portland State came back to win when Maria Rickman tipped the ball past Connie Noe at the net.

It was Northridge making a comeback in game three. The Lady Matadors trailed from the outset but staved off six game points and rallied from a 14-10 deficit to tie the game, 14-14, when Jenny Norlin committed a net fault.

Northridge couldn’t sustain the momentum, however, and the Vikings won the game when CSUN’s Alissa Evans sent a spike long--one of a match-high 15 errors the senior hitter committed.

Kathleen Dixon had 17 kills, Keira Middleton 11 and Evans 10 for Northridge.

“I don’t think they were expecting us to come out that hard,” Norlin said of the first game. She led Portland State with 17 kills.

Earlier in the day, Northridge defeated San Francisco State, 15-12, 15-9, 15-9.

Kathleen Dixon had 15 kills against San Francisco State and Middleton added 11.

The tournament title went to UC Riverside, which completed a clean sweep of the round-robin event Saturday by defeating North Dakota State, 15-9, 14-16, 15-11, 15-5, and San Francisco State, 15-4, 15-5, 7-15, 15-6.

Portland State finished second and earlier Saturday defeated North Dakota State, 15-12, 15-4, 18-16.