Nov. 7, 2009
Contact: Renee Adam
Valparaiso, Ind. - The Cleveland State men's soccer team fell at Valparaiso, 2-1 in the last regular season match of the year, putting them in the #4 seed for the Horizon League tournament. Anthony Baraldi recorded the lone Viking goal of the match early in the second half, but it wouldn't be enough as the Crusaders would come back to score twice in five minutes, giving the Vikings their first conference loss since October 4.
"After we put ourselves on the scoreboard early in the second half we had some lapses on defense that were crucial for us," head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "We let up two quick goals and we just weren't able to rebound after that."
The Vikings and the Crusaders played a scoreless 45 minutes before Baraldi put CSU on the board in the 52nd minute with his first goal of the season, giving the Vikings a 1-0 lead. Admir Suljevic fed Baraldi, where he beat Ryan Schwarz from ten yards out to the far post.
Thirteen minutes later, Valparaiso tied the match at 1-1 when Adrian Ortiz put a shot past Brad Stuver off passes from Kevin Miller and Rodolfo Lucas. Ortiz would also record the game-winning goal five minutes later when he beat Stuver in the goal, giving Valparaiso a 2-1 lead. The goal marked his second of the match as well as his second of the season.
Stuver played the full 90 minutes in the net for the Vikings, recording six saves and allowing two goals, while Schwarz had three saves during the match for the Crusaders, allowing just one goal.
Valparaiso held the advantage in shots on goal during the contest, 8-5 with Slavisa Ubiparipovic recording two of the shots and Suljevic, Baraldi and Jeff Baker each recording one for CSU.
"We need to take some things from this match and move on to the league tournament," Kazemaini said. "We don't have much time to train before our next match so we need to really focus and concentrate on what we need to do in the conference tournament."
The Vikings return to action on Tuesday (Nov. 10) when they begin Horizon League tournament play as the #4 seed with a 7-7-4 overall record and 4-2-2 in the league. CSU will host the #5 seed on Tuesday at Krenzler Field at a time to be determined.
