The CSUN women’s volleyball team snapped its three-game winning streak, after losing to Loyola Marymount 3-1 at the Matadome on Tuesday night.

“We’re disappointed that we lost,” CSUN head coach Jeff Stork said. “It was a tight match.”

In the first set, the Matadors trailed 5-1 before going on a 4-0 run to tie the score. The Matadors again tied the score at 7-7 after a serve ace by freshman opposite hitter Natalie Allen. The Matadors did not get any closer in the set, losing 25-21.

Allen led the team with five kills in the first set and junior setter Sam Orlandini had 12 of the 15 assists for CSUN.

“Our outside blocking was not what we wanted it to be,” Stork said. “We had some passing trouble and our conversion was bad.” 

The only set-win for Northridge came in the second (27-25). There were six lead changes and 14 ties. The biggest lead was a three-point advantage by the Matadors.

“We played more as a team,” Allen said.

Freshman outside hitter Mahina Haina led CSUN with eight kills in set two.

“We cut down our errors,” Haina said.

The Matadors hit .250 and hit 57 percent of their sideouts.

“Our point scoring was real high,” Stork said about the second set. “We also had a lot of kills.”

The third set is where the Matadors had most of their problems, having 13 service errors. LMU also had trouble converting their serves with 11 service errors. 

“We couldn’t get on a run,” Allen said. “We would get a sideout and then they (LMU) would get a sideout.”
 
The number of service errors affected the confidence of CSUN every time they went to serve. 

“They’re young athletes and are learning to block those things out,” Stork said. 

The Matadors went on an early 5-0 run to take an 8-6 lead. The Lions then scored three unanswered points. This is when all of the service errors started to take effect. 

“We beat ourselves with those errors,” Haina said. 

LMU went on a 5-0 run to win the set 25-21.  There were 17 ties and five lead changes in the set.

The Matadors could not get anything going in the fourth and final set of the match. The Lions started the set with an early 3-0 lead before a kill by Haina. The Matadors then scored again on a kill by sophomore outside hitter Monica McFarland.  The set was a close one but CSUN was never able to tie or take the lead. The closest the Matadors got within the Lions was at 24-23. The Matadors could not keep pace with LMU. The Lions shot .486 and the Matadors shot .367. 

“We have to be mentally tough at those end of game situations,” Stork said.
 
Haina led the Matadors with a career-high 19 kills (.255) and Allen added 13 kills. 

Orlandini finished the game with a team high 50 assists. Sophomore defensive specialist/libero Cindy Ortiz led the team with 17 digs.

The Matadors next game is the Big West Conference opener against UCSB on Friday at the Matadome at 7p.m.