Despite Poor Practices, Northridge Plays Sharp

The Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team didn’t allow its season opener to be dictated by the powers that be.

Despite a full house for the debut of USC Coach Pat Powers, the Matadors stole the story with a 17-16, 15-13, 13-15, 15-7 nonconference victory Wednesday night at USC.

The Matadors were awful in practice this week, but were sharp Wednesday with crisp passing and an impressive attack.

“After the last couple of practices, our confidence level was down,” said outside hitter Chad Strickland, who finished with 22 kills. “But today was our test to see if we could get out of it.”

Give the Matadors a B-plus for the match, an A for come-from-behind efforts.

Each team had chances to win the first game, which featured 64 side-outs and was close to an hour in length.

Strickland, a former Hart High standout, made it official by slamming down a weak service return by USC’s Gabe Gardner that floated over the net to Strickland.

For the moment, the Matadors were forgiven for sputtering on five game points--and even allowing the Trojans to take a 16-15 lead--before regaining control.

USC reloaded in the second game and took leads of 7-2 and 13-11 before the Matadors came back again.

“It shows a lot of heart and that’s what we’ve been missing the past few years,” said Matador Coach John Price.

The Trojans had their moments and won the third game, giving Powers, a member of the 1984 USA gold medal-winning Olympic team who was hired last June to rescue his sagging alma mater, something to build on.

But Northridge, which received 22 kills from Collin Smith, jumped to an 8-0 lead in the fourth game, hitting .517.

Gabe Gardner had 27 kills and Eric Seiffert had 26 for USC, which meets the Matadors again March 20 at Northridge in a match that, unlike Wednesday, counts in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings.

Last season, Northridge beat Long Beach State in the playoffs before losing to eventual champion UCLA in the semifinals.