Pretty big playoff implications in this match, as the Matadors enter having lost three straight. What seemed like a pretty solid grasp on at the very least *a* playoff spot, if not a hosting spot, is now quite a bit more tenuous. BYU, the #1 team in the land, will look to secure home court for the MPSF semis and finals, and must do it, ironically, by getting the job done out on the road. Six of the Cougars’ final eight matches are away from home, and this is the first of them.
The first set was quite even from its outset, with the two teams splitting the first 20 points. The Matadors went to a serving sub Ryan Mason at 10-all, and he rattled off an ace. That was enough to prompt Coach Chris McGown to call BYU’s first timeout of the set, but even so, things proceeded evenly. From 12-all, BYU took their first lead of the set off Josue Rivera‘s serve, an ace getting them to 14-12 and CSUN’s first timeout.
Brandon Lebrock got the Matadors the sideout with the kill from the left side after the timeout, energizing the encouragingly large crowd on Senior Night in Northridge. The teams continued to mostly trade sideouts for a while after. At 17-15, Taylor Sander‘s serve almost crawled over the net for a likely ace, but it still fell back on BYU’s side to continue the sideout-fest. BYU got the first point on serve in a long while to go up 20-17 after a very long rally where the Matadors nearly got the sideout with their libero Charlie Condron miraculously making a perfect pipe set to center-back, only to reach a triple block, but get through it, and the rally continue with CSUN setter Travis Magorien at last being called for a ball handling error to end it. He seemed upset with the call, but it was actually a pretty easy one.
Ben Patch poured it on for the Cougars, with a kill to get the sideout at 21-18 and contributing to a block at 22-18 to put BYU in the driver’s seat in set 1. They reached set point at 24-19 with a triple block rejection of a left-side roll shot, and finished it off at 25-20. Patch finished the first set with 8 kills on 9 errorless swings, for an absurd .889 hitting efficiency.
The second set began just as evenly as the first did, with the sides splitting the first 8 points. CSUN came up with the first point on serve with a triple block on the rally ending 6-5 in their favor when BYU setter Ryan Boyce made a curious choice to go to the middle on an iffy pass. He made up for it a few balls later with a service ace that the flagger called out, but the up ref ruled in for an ace. A right-side triple block on the next point put the Cougars ahead 8-7, and they took their first two-point lead of the set at 9-7. The Matadors played kind of an embarrassing point at 10-8, with the Cougars returning an overpass on the Matador serve — that fell in harmlessly. Evidently everyone expected someone else to take it. A hitting error by John Baker made it 12-8 Cougars, prompting CSUN’s timeout.
The first ball back from the timeout was some pretty gruesome offense on both sides, ending with a hitting error into the net from Russ Lavaja where it appeared he simply wasn’t expecting the set. They closed to within 13-10 and everything started to even up again. BYU had the chance to go up five on the rally ending 16-13 when Lavaja’s serve elicited an overpass, and the eventual left-side block landed inches out, for a kill for John Baker. BYU’s advantage extended to 18-14, at which point my computer decided to crash for some reason. With the help of twitter I caught up. BYU extended to 19-14, and a Jared Moore kill followed by Patch’s first hitting error of the night prompted BYU’s first timeout at 19-16. CSUN continued to chip away, and a particularly blatant carry on Lavaja, with a late call coming from the up referee, closed them to within 21-20 at BYU’s last timeout.
The Matadors knotted it at 21, with the officials blowing the rally dead as soon as Rivera tried to use the scorer’s table to boost himself to get at a wayward ball. Second time I’ve now seen that happen. Finally, Baker’s run on serve ended with a service error making it 22-21 BYU, but this brought Patch to the service line for the Cougars, and he delivered on the first opportunity to put the Cougars up 2 and 2 points from winning the set. CSUN called their last timeout there, at 23-21. The run continued with a Matador hitting error making it set point BYU. The Matadors salvaged a poor pass on service reception to set up a Baker kill and make it 24-22, but Sander iced set 2 from the pipe, 25-22.
At 1-1 in the 3rd, the up referee again had to overrule a flagger and rule an ace, and on this occasion, even the (perfectly understandably) partisan CSUN commentators admitted that it was the right call, giving Sander another ace. The beginning of set 3 was just like the first two, until Baker’s mini-run on serve got the Matadors their first lead at 5-4. They had a shot to go up two, with Baker’s last serve yielding a BYU overpass, but the Cougars had the answer at the net with the double block. Further ties occurred at every numerical score through 8. At 8-7, a Matador left-side attack was called off the touch by the flagger, but the up referee overruled her to give the point to BYU. Subsequently, Lavaja’s serve went into the net and Patch followed with a rare unforced error, putting CSUN up 10-8 and perhaps showing that ball indeed don’t lie.
Mostly behind Sander’s hitting, the Cougars came even again at 13, the equalizer coming on a deceptive roll shot. The Matadors responded with two straight to go up 15-13 at BYU’s timeout. Baker came up with a big ace serve coming out of the timeout to put the Matadors up three, the first ace of the night for Baker despite some excellent serving throughout. Patch got the sideout, but CSUN responded with another sideout of their own after a long rally, ending with a net fault called on Sander. Midway through this set, the Cougars subbed in outside hitter Andrew Heap (second-string setter Tyler‘s older brother) for really the first time I can remember this season, and I’ve watched quite a few BYU matches. Not all, but quite a few. The Cougars stayed tenacious, and on Boyce’s serve the Cougars closed back to within 18-17 at CSUN’s timeout.
The first point back was pretty long, ending with a kill for Sander in front of the diving libero Condron. The Matadors got the sideout at 18-all with a kill for Drew Staker to keep things rolling for them. At 19-18, BYU had a terrible service reception, but Boyce managed to track the ball down, 10 feet off the court and feed Sander on the right side for a perfect hit off the block and out to knot it again. The Cougars took the next point to go up 20-19, prompting CSUN’s timeout. The Matadors got a good service reception on the first ball back from the timeout, but their right-side hit still met a double block to put BYU up two. They kept it sideout volleyball from there, with the Matadors crucially failing to keep the ball in bounds on their serve at 22-21. At 23-21, Moore’s hit flew wide left, giving BYU match point, with Patch finishing it off with a right-side kill. It was ruled off the CSUN block and then into the antenna. The refs conferenced for a brief moment afterward, but the call stood.
#1 BYU d. #9 CSU Northridge (25-20, 25-22, 25-21)
This is the result you had to expect, though it was closer throughout than I’d have anticipated. CSUN can’t be terribly disappointed with this particular performance, but it’s got them teetering on the edge of the playoff status. And they still have to play UC Irvine, Long Beach State, and Pepperdine, all of them on the road. It’s tough to be bullish (no pun intended) on their chances.
BYU leaned big time on their two primary pins, with Patch coming up with 18 kills on .483 hitting, and Sander 16 kills at .400 efficiency. The entire rest of the team had only 11 kills. Baker was the leading scorer for the Matadors with 11 kills, but hit just .167, comparing to .158 as a team for the Matadors. You can accept that in a vacuum against a team the caliber of BYU, but boy there’s an even bigger sting in the tail coming.
This being Senior Night for the Matadors, they have to be a little apprehensive of their future. They’ve done reasonably well this year, and still have realistic odds of making the MPSF tournament. But they lose three major contributors to graduation next season, Baker, Staker, and Moore, and while Lebrock is an easy choice for veteran leadership next season, someone unexpected will have to prove a major contributor to keep the Matadors a competitive team in 2014.
BYU face Long Beach State tomorrow, in a match with big playoff implications again. CSUN are finished for the week, and next week travel to Stanford and Pacific.
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