CSUN Volleyball Players Earn Eligibility Waivers

NORTHRIDGE —  Four Cal State Northridge volleyball players received passing grades on Wednesday, while the campus remained closed and classes were not in session.

Jason Hughes, Ed Bond, Cameron Green and Eric Klootwyk were granted waivers giving them immediate academic eligibility, associate athletic director Judith Brame said.

The players were taking classes between semesters in an attempt raise their grade-point averages above 2.0, thereby satisfying Northridge’s academic requirement for eligibility.

However, the Northridge campus has been closed since last Monday and intersession classes have been postponed indefinitely, leaving the athletes in limbo until Wednesday when Lou Ann Kennedy, the school’s vice president for academic affairs, granted the waiver.

“There obviously was a good-faith effort on their part,” Brame said of the athletes.

“We have other student-athletes who did not go to intersession and they will not be cleared. It’s the nature of these circumstances. The classrooms aren’t operational.”

The athletes all are eligible under NCAA standards because their grade-point averages were better than 1.8.

Coach John Price, who guided the Matadors to the NCAA championship match last season, said the addition of the four players should help lift Northridge into contention in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

“If they weren’t eligible it would have been a nightmare for us,” Price said. “Our lineup without those guys would have been OK, but we would have been thin. Now a guy can have an off night and we can put a guy in his place who’s just as good.”

Hughes, a 6-foot-7 freshman from Royal High, is considered one of the top recruits in the nation. He is expected to start at opposite hitter. Bond, a 6-6 sophomore, is potentially a starter at middle blocker, playing opposite Craig Hewitt, a returning starter.

Green, a 6-4 sophomore, is a top backup at left-side hitter. Klootwyk, a freshman, is a reserve middle blocker.

Without the four players, Northridge placed ninth in the recent 16-team UC Santa Barbara tournament.

The Matadors’ matches Jan. 22 at home against UC San Diego and Jan. 26 at UC Irvine, were postponed to allow Northridge players and coaches time to regroup after the earthquake.

CSUN’s next match is Feb. 4 at USC.