Aug. 28, 2009
Contact: Brian McCann
Cleveland, Ohio - In the first overtime match of the season, Cleveland State was able to come away with a 2-1 victory over the Kent State Golden Flashes. Sophomore Natalie Daniels had the winning goal with 13 seconds left to go in the first overtime period.
CSU fell behind early with Kent State's Beth Diederich scoring on a low header near the post beating junior goalkeeper Kelly Zinkiewich in the 6th minute of action, with the assist coming from Annie Messer on a corner kick.
"We started slowly because this is a slow surface for us, we are used to the speed on Krenzler so it took us a little while to adjust," said head coach Derrek Falor. "Kent came after us early and we were on the backs of our feet."
The Vikings waited until late in the second half to come back, with freshman Valerie Stahl making good on a penalty kick to tie the game at 1-1 in the 72nd minute. The kick marked the first time a penalty kick was completed in CSU history.
"Coach wanted me to take the penalty shot but all my corner kicks were off all day and I didn't trust myself, so I told him to let Valerie take it. Even though she is a freshman I trust her, she is awesome," Daniels said.
Daniels and junior Sylvia Olsby led the Vikings during the first half having four opportunities to score, but were denied each time.
"We were able to regroup and instead of playing the possession game we like up the field, we played a lot more through balls and ran onto them. That's what ended up working out for us, because our mids were outstanding today and our forwards worked really hard."
Daniels' first shot from 20 yards out went high hitting the crossbar, with her second shot coming from a free kick that sailed right to the goalie. Her game-winning goal during overtime came from the right side of the box and slipped in at the far left post.
"The ball bounced funny a couple times in the box, and all of a sudden it was right in front of me. I didn't hit it very well and it went really slowly I didn't think it would ever get to the goal," said Daniels.
Olsby's first shot was blocked by Kent State defenders in the middle of the box. Her second shot was saved by the goalie on a one-on-one breakaway play that started at midfield.
With eight saves on the day, Zinkiewich also made CSU history by breaking the Cleveland State career saves record previously held by Erin Withrow. She now has 216 career saves with at least 16 matches left in the season.
"The key to the win though was Kelly, she had the box covered tight all afternoon. She distributed the ball well and got our offense going," said Falor. "The save on the free kick in overtime is as good as you are going to see."
The Vikings face Eastern Illinois in their home opener this Sunday (Aug. 30) at Krenzler Field. Kickoff is set for 12:00 p.m. The contest will be Cancer Awareness Day, with proceeds from the match going to the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute.
