March 17, 2005

Box Score

Northridge, Calif. - Sophomore James Lischer pounded a match-high 18 kills and hit .895 as eighth-ranked Cal State Northridge swept No. 15 George Mason 30-20, 30-17, 30-24 on Wednesday at Wells Fargo Court giving CSUN head coach Jeff Campbell his 100th career win.

With the win, the Matadors earn their third consecutive sweep and improve to 12-10 overall. The loss drops the Patriots to 14-5. Mason will next face No. 1 UCLA on Thursday night at 10 p.m. EST.

Lischer also added three aces to go with his 18 kills for CSUN, which also got 12 kills from Nils Nielsen. Brian Waite was also effective for the Matadors as he had nine kills, hit .500 and had six blocks. Jeff Conover posted 39 assists and Nielsen also added a team-high five digs and also had three aces.

For the Patriots, Hudson Bates had a team-high eight kills and Felix Campos added six. Matt Steinfurth added four blocks for George Mason, which struggled on offense all night hitting .123 (22-15-57) as a team.

The Matadors did not trail the entire evening as CSUN out-hit George Mason .593 (18-2-27) to 150 (8-5-20) in game one's 30-20 win. Game two also saw the Matadors hit at a high percentage (.571) and the Patriots struggle (.176). CSUN bolted to a 16-10 lead and eventually led 19-12. George Mason got a block from R.J. Goubeaux to get within 23-15 but that was as close as the Patriots would get in game two. Northridge had four times as many service errors (16) as hitting errors (4) through game two. In the clinching game three, the score was tied five times, the last at 17-17 before CSUN won six of the next eight points to take a 23-19 lead. The Patriots would get as close as 23-21 after a Nielsen hitting error, but the Matadors closed out the game and the match by taking seven of the next 10 points.