March 5, 2008

Final Stats

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - Senior Isaac Kneubuhl matched his career-high with 22 kills while junior Eric Vance added 19 kills and four aces to lead No. 3 Cal State Northridge to its ninth straight win, 30-25, 25-30, 30-17, 30-23 over No. 13 UC Santa Barbara in an MPSF match on Wednesday at The Matadome.

With the win, the Matadors (15-4, 11-3 MPSF) match the 1979 Northridge squad which also won nine consecutive matches from Feb. 23 to Mar. 23. The Matadors also won nine straight over the last eight matches of the '79 season through the first match of the 1980 campaign. The loss drops the Gauchos to 7-11 overall and 5-9 in conference play.

Kneubuhl was nearly unstoppable for Northridge as he pounded his match-high 22 kills while committing just four errors in 40 swings for a .450 hitting clip. Vance also hit well (.310) and completed his third double-double of the season by adding 10 digs. He also matches his season-high in aces with four. Cody Loe (.333) also reached double figures in kills with 14 and Mike Gaudino had a solid all-around match with 11 kills, eight digs, three blocks and four aces. Northridge served a season-high 11 aces as a team in the win.

For UCSB, Theo Brunner notched a team-high 14 kills (.650) and Jeff Menzel added 13 (.276). Libero Ben Brockman recorded a team-high 13 digs in the loss.

After an attack error from Kevin McKniff on the evenings first point, the Matadors got a kill from Gaudino and would not trail again. The Gauchos tied the game at 3-3 but the Matadors then won 12 of the next 16 points to take a 15-7 lead following a McKniff put-away. UCSB whittled the lead down to two on four occasions, the last at 27-25 before a Phil Mathews hitting error and kills from Kneubuhl and Gaudino ended the frame.

The Gauchos bounced back to lead for a good portion of game two. A kill from Mike Runkle gave UCSB an early 6-3 lead and the lead for either team would not grow to more than two points until the Gauchos again went up by three at 24-21 after Loe hit wide. But back-to-back kills from Vance and a Gaudino ace knotted the score at 24-24 forcing a UCSB timeout. A kill from Brunner put the Gauchos back in front and the Matadors scored just one more point the rest of the way as UCSB evened the match 1-1 with the 30-25 decision.

After hitting .130 and .194 in the first two games, the Matadors responded to hit .600 in game three and .588 in game four. Game three was all Northridge as the Matadors jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead following a Kneubuhl kill. The Northridge lead soon grew to 12-6 and eventually to 18-8 forcing the Gauchos to use their second and final timeout. The Matador lead stayed in the double digits for much of the remainder of the game as Northridge, which committed just two hitting errors, cruised home 30-17.

The Matadors also led from start to finish in game four as they jumped out to an early 10-6 lead. UCSB claimed six of the next 10 points to close to within 14-12 but a 3-0 run boosted the Northridge lead back to five at 17-12 after a McKniff ace. The Gauchos would not get within four points the rest of the way as Vance ended the match on his 19th kill of the night.

Cal State Northridge continues its six-match homestand this Friday, Mar. 7 as the Matadors host No. 8 USC at 7 p.m.

- GO MATADORS -