Talking a Good Game : Northridge’s Unger Sets Up the Shots--and Takes Them Too

Volleyball nets don’t make much of a sound barrier. For proof, simply study the player stationed across from Matt Unger, Cal State Northridge’s setter.

Furrowed brows, glares and lips quivering with rage are some of the telltale signs that Unger, a feisty fifth-year senior, is up to his tricks.

“You can’t hear it, but you know it’s going on,” Northridge Coach John Price said. “The players snipe at each other, and Matt is always right in the middle of it.”

Such verbal volleys are sweet music to the Matadors because Unger’s chatter tends to be most constant when he and his teammates are playing well.

Earlier this season, when Northridge upset Stanford, Unger’s banter seemed to blare louder than the Cardinal’s famous band.

“You can’t stop that,” he chirped at Stanford blockers as they groped after a spike shot by Coley Kyman, the Matadors’ All-American middle blocker. “You need some help. You need at least two blockers on him . . .

”. . . Well, I guess that didn’t work, either. I dunno, maybe you should try three?”

And so it went. When Northridge is on a roll, an opponent’s request for quiet simply won’t do.

“People tell him to shut up all the time,” said Kyman, the Matadors’ leader in kills and blocks. “But it doesn’t stop him. It just fires him up more.”

Unger can back up his talk. He is Northridge’s team captain and the school’s all-time assists leader with 4,971.

Though he is the shortest setter on any contender in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, Unger has been a three-year starter for the fourth-ranked Matadors (15-7, 9-5 in league play), who will play top-ranked UCLA (16-2, 11-2) at 7 tonight at Pauley Pavilion.

Unger is listed at 6 feet, but teammates say he probably is an inch or two shorter. “Sometimes I feel like people don’t respect me as much as the taller guys,” Unger said. “That’s where my fire comes from.”

The flames occasionally land Unger in hot water. In a match last season, Unger’s chorus so angered Pepperdine middle blocker Brian Merrick that a fight almost broke out.

Twice this season, Unger and Stace Lougeay, a reserve outside hitter from UC Santa Barbara, have exchanged more than words after a match. They had to be separated at a tournament in Santa Barbara, and they later had another shoving session at a tournament in San Diego.

Unger said Lougeay is a longtime adversary from high school and beach competitions. “But that’s over,” Unger added. “I told him I wouldn’t be talking to him anymore until he got in a game.”

Also stoking Unger’s desire are snubs he attributes to opposing coaches. After helping Palisades High to the 1988 City Section 4-A Division championship, Unger said he accepted a scholarship offer to attend Hawaii.

Then, over the next few months, he lost contact with Hawaii Coach Alan Rosehill. By the time Unger reached him again, Rosehill had signed another setter.

Price did not have a scholarship, either, but he offered the opportunity to earn one. As a freshman, Unger saw limited action as a reserve--a role in which another coach thought he was destined to remain.

Adam Unger, Matt’s older brother, was UC Santa Barbara’s setter at the time. Adam reported that Ken Preston, UCSB’s coach, had said Matt was “too small to ever play in this league.”

More fuel for the fire. Unger relishes the memory of last April 17, the day Northridge eliminated Santa Barbara from playoff contention.

“I’ve never said anything to Ken Preston,” Unger said. “I don’t think I have to say anything. What we did to them on the court last year said it all.”

As for Hawaii, Unger cheerfully notes the Matadors defeated the Rainbows twice last season, after which Rosehill resigned. “Pay-backs are always nice,” he said.

Unger also has had some relatively minor differences with Price, with whom he engaged in spirited debate after being lifted from Northridge’s match last week against Pepperdine.

Price said he replaced Unger because he was not following the Matadors’ game plan.

“He didn’t want to hear it,” Price said. Unfortunately for both, the match was being broadcast live on Prime Ticket, and television cameras caught most of their animated conversation.

“We went at it for about two or three minutes,” Price said. “Finally I just said, ‘Matt, shut up.’ ” Eventually, he did, and soon after re-entered the match.

“Matt is a great guy, and he would do anything to help us win,” Price said, “but sometimes he gets almost too competitive. He wants to win so bad he loses track of the things he needs to do to help us win.”

Unger acknowledges he occasionally gets “a little crazy.”

“I know I have to be more receptive,” he said. “Sometimes my competitiveness takes over and I don’t handle criticism very well. I get where I don’t let the outside guy tell me what I’m doing.”

Unger and company will need to be on target against UCLA, which swept three games from Northridge in February.

“They’re such a big blocking team that if your sets are even just a little bit off, you’re in trouble,” Price said of the Bruins. “They don’t give a setter much of a margin for error.”

And should he account for a dunk or a joust or two himself, that would be something to talk about.