The Colleges : Riverside’s Secret Mystifies CSUN

Sue Gozansky, the women’s volleyball coach at UC Riverside, has a secret and she’s not letting anyone in on it.

Gozansky’s Highlanders beat defending NCAA Division II champion Cal State Northridge in 4 games Tuesday night in a California Collegiate Athletic Assn. match at Riverside, ending the Lady Matadors’ 48-match conference winning streak.

It was the second time in as many meetings that the Highlanders, the No. 4 team in Division II, beat CSUN, the fifth-ranked team. Riverside also beat CSUN in the semifinals of the Premiere Tournament at the Air Force Academy 2 weeks ago.

“We remembered to do a few things that beat them the last time,” Gozansky said. “Of course, I’m not going to say what those were.”

That is because Riverside probably will play Northridge at least one more time this season. If both teams win their final CCAA matches Friday night, they will tie for the conference championship.

Should that happen, a playoff match at a neutral site this weekend will determine which team receives the automatic berth in the Western regionals Dec. 2.

But since both teams are in the Division II top 10, the loser probably will advance as well.

CSUN has reached the Final Four 8 consecutive years. Riverside beat the Lady Matadors for the national title 2 years ago.

Down and almost out in Woodland Hills: The Pierce College women’s volleyball team may wrap up its season Friday with a season-finale match against Moorpark.

The operative word is may because injury-decimated Pierce was forced to forfeit Tuesday’s match against Santa Monica when setter Susie Steinkemp left the court after suffering a hairline fracture of her kneecap, leaving first-year Coach Steve Gazzaniga with just 5 players.

“We played a lot of matches this season where we had only one extra player because of injuries,” said Gazzaniga, who took over the Pierce program in December after coaching at Agoura High. “There’s only so much you can do tactically as a coach if you only have one person sitting next to you.”

Pierce (11-6) is in fourth place in the Western State Conference.

And then we’ll play Oklahoma: In Sports Illustrated’s College Basketball Preview, UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian commented on the unlikelihood of model Pamela Monakee’s marriage to sneaker king Sonny Vaccaro:

“All the coaches agreed for once: Pam marrying Sonny was like Occidental beating Georgetown at Georgetown,” Tark the Shark said.

Occidental assistant Jim Kerman, tongue firmly embedded in cheek, is ready to field the challenge.

“He said ‘ was like Occidental beating Georgetown,’ ” Kerman mused. “If that’s the case, I wonder if John Thompson wants a rematch. To be fair, we’ll play it here. And I want to thank Tark for bringing up that insignificant tidbit of trivia.

“I think it’s time we go to the Big East and showcase our ability.”

Thanks, but no thanks: Reggie Smith did not do the Valley College football team any favors when he returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown in the Monarchs’ game against Santa Monica last Saturday.

“It was great for Reggie,” Valley Coach Chuck Ferrero said, “but it added to the already blase attitude our guys had going into the game.”

Valley was coming off a big win over Pierce, which lost to Santa Monica by only 2 points. Santa Monica, in turn, lost to L. A. Southwest, a team Valley beat handily.

“Reggie took the opening kickoff back and it was like, ‘Here we go again,’ ” Ferrero said.

Valley, however, proceeded to go into a funk and the Monarchs lost, 48-13.

“From A to Z, everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” Ferrero said. “We completely unraveled and we’ve put ourselves in the hardest position we could be in.”

Valley travels to Bakersfield on Saturday for a game against the unbeaten Renegades that will decide the Western State Conference Southern Division titlist and the representative for the WSC Bowl on Dec. 3.

Sam Farmer, Chris J. Parker and staff writer Gary Klein contributed to this notebook.