CSUN Site for Regional in Volleyball

Cal State Northridge, which won its fifth consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Assn. volleyball title, will play host to the NCAA Division II Western regional playoffs Dec. 4-6.

CSUN is the No. 1-seeded team in the playoffs after finishing the regular season as the top-ranked team in Division II. The Lady Matadors can earn their eighth consecutive Final Four berth by winning two playoff matches.

Northridge (31-7) plays its first match Dec. 5 against the winner of a match between No. 4-seeded UC Riverside (17-14) and No. 5 San Francisco State (21-7). The Dec. 4 match is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Cal State Sacramento (32-11), the No. 2-seeded team, plays No. 3 Portland State (24-13) in a Dec. 5 match with the winner advancing to the 1 p.m. championship match Dec. 6.

Northridge finished the regular season with a 15-7, 15-12, 16-14 nonconference loss Tuesday against U. S. International University in San Diego.

CSUN is led by senior setter Angela Brinton, the CCAA most-valuable player, and Sue Darcey, who was named first team all-conference. Alissa Evans, Anna Garcia and Franci Bowman were selected to the All-CCAA second team and Kathleen Dixon was honorable mention.

Northridge Coach Walt Ker was named the CCAA coach of the year for the fifth consecutive season.

CSUN defeated both Riverside and Sacramento three times this season. Northridge’s only loss to a Division II opponent was to North Dakota State in the Portland State tournament in September.

Despite CSUN’s strong season, Ker said that the Lady Matadors do not have an advantage going into the playoffs.

“The bottom line in these matches is performance,” Ker said. “Everything else we’ve done means nothing.”

CSUN, which was undefeated in conference for the third consecutive year, last played host to a regional playoff in 1985. Northridge has been the runner-up in the past three national championship matches.

The winner of one of the four regional playoffs will play host to the Final Four on Dec. 11-12.