Nov. 9, 2012
Contact: Jeff Sattora
Detroit, Mich.- Survive and advance, that is the biggest key to doing well in any tournament setting, and exactly what the Cleveland State men's soccer team was able to do this morning.
The Vikings, the second seed in this year's Horizon League tournament, took down the fourth seeded Valparaiso Crusaders 1-0 in the tournament semi-finals this morning held at Detroit.
"We knew anyone we were going to face in the conference tournament was going to be a tough opponent," said Head Coach Ali Kazemaini. "We wanted to make sure we didn't get behind and I thought everybody had a good, solid performance today, everybody dug in."
While CSU tied against Valparaiso earlier in the year 0-0, this time the Vikings were able to get a goal early and help make it stand.
Junior forward Admir Suljevic continued his theme of making big plays in big moments, as he was able to put away a goal in the 35th minute off a pass from freshman Christian Arboleda to give CSU the lead and win.
Playing the against the 2012 Horizon League Goalie of the Year in Kyle Zobeck for Valparaiso, the Vikings knew that getting that first goal and competing for a full game would be huge.
"We wanted to have that mindset that no matter what the game threw at us we were going to compete for a full 90 minutes," Kazemaini said on getting the early goal and continuing to compete.
With the 1-0 deficit, Valparaiso continued to charge, including outshooting the Vikings 9-4 on the day and 5-1 in the second half of play. With that said, Kazemaini was happy with how his defense, and especially goalie Brad Stuver responded.
"I think we defended really well, I thought that was the key to our success." Kazemaini said. "It's key for us to have Stuver in the back, we need him to play big and he did today."
This win secures the second trip for the Vikings to the league championship game in seven seasons under Kazemaini. CSU also advanced to the title game following the 2008 season, when they fell 1-0 to Loyola.
The Vikings will face the winner of the other semi-final game, held at 2:00 p.m. today in Detroit. That game will match-up the top seeded Detroit Titans against the sixth seeded Loyola Ramblers.
CSU fell 3-1 to Detroit early in the year, the Vikings' only conference loss. Looking at the other semi-finalist, CSU took down Loyola 3-2 in overtime on the road.
The championship game will take place this Sunday at 12:00 p.m. in Detroit. Fans can watch the action live on www.horizonleague.org.
