Northridge Shows Worst but Saves Best for Last

What happens when a team filled with youth and inexperience plays the top team in the nation?

Actually, it turned into a decent match.

Cal State Northridge, its roster riddled with freshmen and inexperience, took on top-ranked Stanford at the UC Santa Barbara men’s volleyball tournament and lost, 15-11, 15-7, Friday night at the Thunderdome.

But there were no tears, no rage. After all, this is a preseason tournament.

And though Stanford was beaten up physically, the mental edge was close enough to Northridge’s court to salvage the loss.

“That was our best match of the day,” Coach John Price said after his seventh-ranked Matadors finished with a 2-3 mark on the first leg of the two-day tournament.

Mike Lambert, a 1996 U.S. Olympian, played with a shoulder injury and Andy Witt played through his chronically sore back for Stanford. Lambert finished with 13 kills, Witt had seven.

The Matadors, who can still finish as high as fifth in the 24-team tournament if they beat BYU and UC Irvine today and win their tournament playoff match, trailed, 8-7, in each game, but gradually gave way.

“We’re a couple weeks away from being really good,” said outside hitter Collin Smith.

Chad Strickland had nine kills and Smith had eight for CSUN.

Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne beat Northridge, 15-8, 8-15, 15-12, and with seven freshmen and a sophomore transfer getting major time, the Matadors were young.

“We’re just kind of winging it right now,” said Price, who tried several personnel combinations.

Strickland had 16 kills and only three errors, and Smith had 12 kills and five errors for Northridge.

The Matadors played without problems in their first two matches, defeating Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 15-1, 15-5, and California, 15-0, 15-2.

They had a chance to enter the evening session with a 3-0 mark, but started to set precedent with their third-game jitters.

Northridge failed to hold leads of 13-9 and 14-11 and Calgary, the No. 9 team in Canada, found itself a 12-15, 17-16, 17-15 victor.

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Several recent high school graduates from the Valley area played key roles Friday.

Starters included Loyola Marymount freshman outside hitter Jason Lee (Westlake High), UCSB freshman outside hitter Rick Rauth (Harvard-Westlake) and BYU sophomore middle blocker Ryan Millar (Highland).

Rauth, the 1996 Times Valley-area player of the year, played in the fourth-ranked Gauchos’ 17-15, 15-11 upset of No. 2 UCLA.

Freshman outside hitter Donald Puathasnanon (Granada Hills) saw playing time for UCLA.