Oct. 19, 2007
Contact: Greg Murphy
MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Cleveland State had its nine-match win streak snapped on Friday night as the Vikings fell at Milwaukee, 30-21, 28-30, 30-27, 26-30, 15-13, in Horizon League action at the Klotsch Center.
Milwaukee improves to 20-2 overall and takes over first place in the conference at 10-1. CSU, which lost for the first time since Sept. 14 at Wright State, slips to 16-6 overall and 9-2 in league play.
"We had a tough time trying to stop them offensively tonight," head coach Chuck Voss said. "But overall, I was pleased with the way we played. We gave ourselves a chance to win, which is all you can ask for against a great team like Milwaukee."
Earlier this season (Sept. 29), the Vikings handed Milwaukee a 3-2 setback in Woodling Gym that snapped the Panthers 14-match win streak.
Amy Benz led the Vikings Friday night with a career-high 20 kills and seven blocks, while Alexis Korovich (13 kills, 20 digs) and Mel Snyder (52 assists, 15 digs) tallied double-doubles.
Beth Greulich chipped in 15 kills and Jordan Bateman added 20 digs to run her season total to 441, just 17 shy of breaking her own school record set last season.
Milwaukee was nearly flawless in game one as it hit .452 (22-3-42) in the opener. The Panthers used a 10-4 run to break a 10-10 tie and seize control of the opener.
Despite the lopsided loss, the Vikings came back strong in game two as they raced out to a 9-1 lead behind the serving of Mel Snyder and Kayla Lefeld. Snyder served the first four points of the game, including an ace for the fourth point, while Lefeld scored five points for CSU, including a pair of aces. Snyder and Lefeld finished with three aces apiece as the Vikings held an 11-2 advantage in service aces.
The Panthers managed to battle all the way back and slice the deficit to one point at 29-28, but a kill from Jenni Ramminger knotted up the match at intermission.
Game three was the tightest of the five as the team's traded the lead a total of 15 times with neither team leading by more than three. CSU took a 26-23 lead, but a Panther kill, three consecutive Viking attack errors and back-to-back kills by Leanne Felsing rallied the Panthers to a 29-26 advantage and a game three win.
Leading 3-2 in game four, Ramminger served five straight points for CSU to give the Vikings an 8-2 lead. Beth Greulich and Amy Benz combined for a pair of block assists during the run. However, Milwaukee again had an answer as it slowly crept back to knot the game at 13-13 and force a CSU timeout. The Vikings came out of the timeout and tallied four of the next five points to take a 17-14 lead and pushed the lead to as many as six points to force a deciding fifth game.
Game five featured four lead changes and six ties early on, with the final one coming at 7-7. From there, Milwaukee scored four straight points to claim an 11-7 lead and pushed its advantage to 14-10. CSU managed one final run with three straight points to pull within one (14-13), but a kill from Natalie Schmitting ended the match.
Leanne Felsing recorded a triple-double to lead the Panthers as she finished with 30 assists, 23 digs and 19 kills. Jamie Gabrielsen added 23 kills and 15 digs.
CSU will return to action on Saturday when it travels to Green Bay for a 5:00 pm EDT match.