CSUN Sinks to Lowest Level

On the positive side, the Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team should improve in its next match.

It would have to, because the Matadors couldn’t possibly play worse than they did in a 15-0, 15-6, 15-4 loss to UCLA in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match Wednesday night before 417 at Pauley Pavilion.

“There’s not one positive that came out of this,” said Northridge Coach John Price. “The only positive might be you could reinforce how bad we are by showing the videotape.”

Northridge, which did little to justify its No. 9 national ranking, had a .113 hitting percentage, capped by a -.029 effort in the third game.

“I just don’t think we are good enough,” said Northridge outside hitter Chad Strickland. “We didn’t play together. We didn’t even play individually.”

UCLA (2-1, 1-0), the defending national champion, continued its dominance over Northridge (4-2, 2-2). The Bruins, ranked No. 2 in the nation, have won the last 12 matches between the teams, winning 36 of 37 games in that span. The Bruins hold a 35-2-1 advantage in the series.

“Every time we play UCLA we act like a junior high team playing the national team,” Price said. “Even when we have had a better team we were this bad sometimes.”

Price paused.

“Well, not this bad.”

The match started horribly for Northridge. Not only were the Matadors shut out, but they didn’t even force the Bruins to work too hard for it. Northridge followed six sideouts with serves that plunked right into the net. The Matadors also gave the Bruins four points on errors.

“That first game was a joke,” said Price, who couldn’t remember the last time one of his teams had been shut out.

And Northridge played sloppy defense, allowing several balls to drop untouched while Matador players stared at each other. As the game went on, the Matadors exchanged cold glares and pointed fingers.

The Matadors showed more emotion and played better defense in the second game, but they still had too many mistakes. There was James Hemenover fanning on an attempted kill and Collin Smith missing a waist-high dig right in front of him. Northridge also gave up consecutive points on an overlap and an illegal back-row attack.

UCLA put the match away in the third game, with Tom Stillwell, a former Notre Dame High standout, doing much of the damage. Stillwell finished with 15 kills and a .636 hitting percentage. UCLA hit .469 for the match.

“Statistically they were awesome,” Price said. “But were they playing hard? Did they need to play hard? No.”