Oct. 8, 2011
Contact: Renee Adam
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VALPARAISO, Ind. - The Cleveland State volleyball team earned a five-set victory over Valparaiso Saturday evening, as three Vikings posted double-digit kills to lead the CSU offense. The Vikings are now 12-5 overall and 5-1 in the Horizon League, while Valparaiso falls to 13-8 and 4-3 in league play.
Set scores against the Crusaders were 26-24, 22-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-8.
"I thought both of our outside hitters played very well tonight and Valparaiso had a very hard time containing them which allowed us to have a great offensive match," head coach Chuck Voss said. "Jackie also had a great night offensively for us so we were able to attack from every position. Defensively we made a lot of game changing plays tonight and everyone really stepped up for us."
Kara Koch led the CSU offense with a season-high 23 kills, while Kerry Winchester tallied a career-high 16 and Jackie Dabbelt added 12. Jordan Goad recorded a season-best 53 assists while the Viking defense was led by Amy Grabiec who tallied a season-best 30 digs.
The Vikings fell behind 20-14 in the opening set but rattled off eight of the next 10 points to tie the frame at 22-22. During that span CSU got kills from Koch, Volkmer and Megan Barhorst. Both teams traded points for the rest of the set, until the Vikings were able to post two straight points to take the set on a Valparaiso error and a Volkmer kill.
After dropping the next two sets, the Vikings battled back to take set four, 25-23 and force a fifth set. CSU jumped out to a 6-2 lead with two kills each from Koch and Winchester in the final frame and then extended its lead to 13-3 after posting seven of the next eight points. The Vikings were finally able to take the match with a Barhorst kill, her seventh of the night.
"Going into tomorrow's match against UIC we need different people to step up so that we have a balanced attack," Voss said. "We need to focus on playing more consistently and really come out strong at the beginning of the match."
The Vikings will close out their three-match road swing Sunday (Oct. 9) afternoon, as they will take on UIC at 5:00 p.m. EST in Chicago, Ill.
