Oct. 21, 2005
CLEVELAND - Cleveland State rallied from a two-games-to-one deficit to pull out a 30-17, 29-31, 26-30, 30-24, 15-7 victory over Wright State in front of a record crowd of 913 fans on Friday night at Woodling Gymnasium. With their fifth straight win over WSU, the Vikings improved to 14-6 on the year and 6-2 in the Horizon League, while the Raiders fell to 6-14 overall and 2-6 in the league.
CSU extended its record winning streak in the league to four matches, while snapping a run of eight straight five-game losses in regular season conference play, dating back to 2002. The win also enabled the Vikings to match the school record they set last year with six league victories -- with six contests still left to play.
Cleveland State found itself down 8-3 early in the must-win fourth game, but rallied to take a 9-8 advantage thanks to strong serving by Mel Snyder, two kills from Jenna Maddocks and a pair of blocks from Jenni Ramminger and Nickole Kennedy. After trading points, the Vikings turned a slim 20-19 margin into a 25-20 bulge due largely in part to three kills from Emily Clark. CSU then sided-out to force the deciding fifth game.
The Vikings used the newfound momentum and four early blocks to jump out to an insurmountable 9-3 lead in the fifth game. CSU hit .474 in the frame (11-2-19), while the Raiders could only manage a .053 hitting percentage (5-4-19).
"We told the team that even though we were dow,n to keep fighting and the momentum would eventually swing our way," CSU head coach Chuck Voss said. "We made some blocking adjustments in the fourth game and it seemed to throw Wright State off a little."
Clark paced the Vikings with a career-high 21 kills and 22 digs, while Maddocks added season-highs with 18 kills and 22 digs. Kennedy finished with 21 kills and eight blocks, while Danielle Siefker tallied 12 kills. Ramminger led all players with 10 blocks. Mel Snyder finished with a career-high 66 assists, 12 digs, seven kills and four blocks.
"Our outsides really stepped up tonight -- especially with Nikki [Kennedy] struggling at times," Voss noted. "We passed great but were a little tentative defensively, which we need to improve on if we hope to win tomorrow."
Wright State was led by Sarah Poling's 20 kills and 19 digs, while Taylor Gerlach tallied a match-high 32 digs.
CSU held huge advantages in kills (84 to 62) and hitting percentage (.221 to .125), while also leading in blocks (16.5 to 11.0) and digs (105 to 97).
Cleveland State continues its six-match homestand with a 4:00 p.m. contest against Butler (9-11, 4-4 HL) on Saturday, Oct. 22.
