CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland State volleyball team opened up the 2014 CSU Invitational Friday evening, earning a 3-0 victory over Navy. The Vikings will now face Dayton (12:30 p.m.) and Toledo (7:00 p.m.) tomorrow, and will be trying for their first tournament title of the season.
Set scores against Navy were 28-26, 25-23, 25-13.
The Viking offense was led by Grace Kauth and Christina Toth, Kauth posting 16 kills on a .389 hitting percentage (16-2-36), while Toth added 10 kills. Kauth added 10 digs to record her second double-double of the season, while Dayna Roberts also notched a double-double against Navy, posting 17 digs and 17 assists. Nikki Holmes recorded a team-high 23 digs, while Alexis Middlebrooks tallied seven blocks for the second time out of the last three matches.
"I thought we made progress throughout the entire match, once we got to the third frame I thought every aspect of our game was pretty solid," head coach Chuck Voss said. "Grace and Christina had great matches for us, and Grace and Nikki had a great performance defensively which in turn allowed us to run our offense at a high level."
During the opening set, Cleveland State was able to gain a six-point advantage at the 16-10 mark after posting a 7-1 run that included kills from Middlebrooks, Toth, and Kauth. The Vikings were able to hold on to their lead over the next few plays, until Navy evened the score at 20-20. The two teams then traded points - and CSU was able to fight off two set-points - before the Vikings were able to put the frame away with a Navy error and a Maggie Hannon kill.
The second set had a similar feel, as the Vikings were able to gain a multi-point lead early on and held the advantage until the end, when Navy was able to work its way back into the frame. CSU gained its largest lead at the 15-9 mark following a Kauth kill, and held the advantage until Navy earned just its third lead at 23-22. From here, the Vikings closed out the frame with three straight points – all three points coming from Kauth kills.
The Vikings then controlled play throughout the entire third frame, jumping out to a 7-1 lead and cruising to a 25-13 set victory.
"Coming into the weekend we had a great week of practice, and we were expecting to play well. Although we didn't play great tonight, we did enough to get the win but we will definitely have to play at a high level tomorrow against Dayton and Toledo," Voss said.
