Northridge, Calif. - Casey Hinger and Mahina Haina combined for 21 kills as Cal State Northridge swept visiting Cal State Fullerton, 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-22), Saturday night in The Matadome to wrap up the 2012 NCAA women's volleyball regular season.
Hinger led the Matadors with 11 kills and eight blocks to power the Matadors to their second victory of the year over Fullerton. The Matadors improved to 21-10 overall and 12-6 in Big West Conference play and finish third in the conference behind undefeated champion Hawaii and second place Long Beach State.
The Titans wrap up 2012 on a three-match losing streak and fall to 15-16, 9-9. They will finish in a ti for 5th place with UC Santa Barbara. It is the second consecutive sub-.500 season for Fullerton after posting five straight .500-or-better seasons from 2006 to 2010. Fullerton's 9-9 conference mark is just the fourth .500-or-better finish in the program's history and is just the third time in its history to reach the nine-win plateau.
Three Fullerton seniors played their final games in a Titan uniform Saturday night. Hitter Torrie Brown had seven kills and hit .417 on the night and hitter Kayla Neto led all players with 13 kills and four blocks. Libero Gabrielle Dewberry had a pair of service aces and a tie for the match high with 18 digs.
Dewberry will leave the program with 1,259 career digs, good for fourth all-time in a Titan career. Neto leaves her mark as the Titans' all-time kill (1628) and points (1918.5) queen and finished just 68 career digs shy of the 1,000-1,000 club, still occupied by just one Titan, Lauren Goins, from 2001-2004.
Fullerton's Leah Best also had a solid game tallying nine kills and a team-leading 8 blocks in the loss.
Northridge held the Titans to just a .125 (39-24-120) attack percentage getting four-or-more blocks from four players at the net. Northridge hit .226 as a team and as high as .293 in the second set.
Hawaii is the only Big West team with another guaranteed game this season. They will play in the NCAA Championship first and second round from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2. The entire 64-team field will be announced early next week.