Matadors Dip Low in Loss : Volleyball: Top-ranked UCLA makes short work of 9th-ranked Northridge in tournament victory.

The up-and-down Cal State Northridge volleyball team hit a low point on Friday night in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match of the UCLA Volleyball Classic at Pauley Pavilion.

The host Bruins, ranked No. 1 nationally, had little trouble beating the ninth-ranked Matadors, 15-4, 15-5, 17-16.

After losing the first game in about 10 minutes, the Matadors (15-8, 11-6) showed no signs of improvement in the second. All five of their points in the second game came on UCLA errors.

Northridge couldn’t put a dent in UCLA’s game, which included an impressive attack of powerful hitting and impressive, solid blocking.

The Bruins’ Jeff Nygaard had a match-high 28 kills and 11 blocks and Paul Nihipali had 20 kills.

“Nygaard is hard to stop,” CSUN Coach John Price said. “He’s always going to play well in matches like these.”

Northridge’s only hopes of a comeback came in the third game when UCLA Coach Al Scates gave a couple of key starters some rest. The Matadors led, 13-8, before the Bruin starters re-entered.

UCLA quickly forged a tie, 13-13, and the teams exchanged leads until the end. At 16-16 Northridge senior middle blocker Oliver Heitmann was called for touching the net after a UCLA serve and the Bruins (21-1, 15-0) sealed the victory.

Heitmann led the Matadors with 24 kills and Chris Gil had 17. Northridge will play USC today at 4:30 p.m. in the consolation match of the tournament that will not count in the league standings.