Leopards come up short against CSUN
Campus Times
March 20, 1998
The City of La Verne is about 20 or 30 miles from the shores of Huntington
Beach.
These two cities, however, have similar occurrences. At the beach, there
is a high and a low tide, and at the University of La Verne, there is a
high and a low tide for the men's volleyball team.
On Tuesday, the Leopards played host to Cal State Northridge, a Division
I volleyball team. During the match, La Verne could not figure out whether
or not there was a high or a low tide, but what they did find out was that
Northridge was beatable but not on this night.
The Leopards fell in four games, 15-7, 15-11, 9-15 and 15-13.
The Leopards did take one game from the Matadors, who are 5-11 on the
season. In that one victory, the Leopards out hit the Matadors with 17 kills
to 15 from Northridge, and they also had a better hitting percentage, .324
to .267.
"Our hitting as a whole wasn't that great," said senior opposite
hitter Ryan Allen, who had 20 kills in the match.
In game one the Leopards stayed with the Matadors until the score reached
5-5. That was when the Matadors rallied off eight straight points to bury
the Leopards into a hole in game one.
The second game went much the same way, but the Leopards hung around
in the match and passed the 10-point mark but then only managed to get one
more point on the board befor falling to CSUN.
In game three, junior outside hitter Chris Peterson started the game
off with two straight aces. Following Peterson's aces was a solo block by
senior middle blocker Jason Flick and another ace by freshman middle blocker
Alex Lienert.
The Leopards started game three with a score of 5-1, and they never
looked back.
"We have been playing up and down," said Allen. "We would
make a run and then hit a lull and let them score a lot of points, but we
have been working on that, but tonight we didn't do it."
The Leopards, after winning game three, came out strong again in game
four and were ahead for the majority of the game, but they let Northridge
come back from a five point deficit, 13-8, and take the game and the match
right out from under them.
"We passed well and our passing is what kept us in the match,"
said junior outside hitter Sean Douglas, who did not start the match because
of a sprained wrist but did come in and play.
He had four kills and four digs in limited action.
The Leopards did pass well in the match, but their inability to side
out cost them the match.
On March 13 and 14, the Leopards traveled to San Bernardino for a tournament.
The Leopards hooked up with four teams, three of which were club teams,
and none of these three teams had any bearing on the Leopards season.
However, there was one important team to beat as far as the Leopards
were concerned and that team was Cal State San Bernardino. The Leopards
won the match, 15-7, 15-10, 11-15 and 15-4.
"This match was important for our season because San Bernardino
is a team we needed to beat to make the Division III playoffs," said
senior setter Morgan Coberly.
The Leopards also beat Cal State Sacramento in three games, 15-5, 15-11
and 15-4. Arizona State fell to the Leopards in three games as well, 15-4,
15-13 and 15-8. La Verne did lose to Biola in four games.
La Verne won the San Bernardino tournament, and four of the Leopards
six starters received all tournament honors.
Lienert received second team all tournament. Flick, Allen and Coberly
all received first-team all-tournament. Coberly also received tournament
MVP honors.
The Leopards finished every team off in the tournament, minus Biola
University. However, against Biola, La Verne sat their starters in favor
of their bench players.
"I think we learned how to finish off our opponents," said
Lienert, who had 23 kills, six digs, five block assists and a .500 hitting
percentage.
The Leopards crushed San Bernardino by out-hitting them, 77 kills to
68 kills.
La Verne's team hitting percentage was a lot better then San Bernardino's,
.347 to .181.
The Leopards only need one more match in this long season in order to
get themselves into the playoffs. That match will come on April 3 against
UC San Diego at La Verne at 7 p.m.
The Leopards next match will be Sunday against Harvard at La Verne at
7:30 p.m.
ULV plays San Diego State on Tuesday at home at 7:30 p.m., then travels
to San Diego to face them April 4 at 7 p.m.
Next Saturday, the La Verne hosts a ULV mini-round robin tournament.
