Oct. 23, 2009
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State ran its win streak to 10 and took over sole possession of first place in the Horizon League with a 3-1 victory over Valparaiso on Friday night in Woodling Gym.
Match scores were 25-16, 22-25, 25-20, 25-19.
The win improved the Vikings to 21-5 overall and 9-1 in the Horizon League, while Valpo slipped to 16-9 overall and back into second place in the league at 8-2. If the teams do end up tied in the league standings, CSU would own the tiebreaker with two wins over the Crusaders this season.
The 10 straight wins ties the longest streak for the Vikings under Voss (2002) and marks the most consecutive wins for CSU since the 1982 team won 11 straight.
"It's nice to be in first place, but we can't be content because there is still a lot of volleyball to be played against some very good teams in the league," head coach Chuck Voss said. "We have to continue to stay mentally strong and do the things that we have been doing.
"Tonight's match was a lot of fun and I thought we came out with a lot of energy and intensity. I would be remiss if I didn't thank our fans, especially the CYO kids and parents that came out and supported us tonight. It made for a great environemnt and I thought we really fed off that."
Several CYO volleyball teams received sportsmanship awards between the second and third sets and were part of the season-high crowd of 869.
Beth Greulich once again paced the Viking offense, finishing with 22 kills and hitting .463. Liz Fazio added 19 kills (.333) and 13 digs for her 11th double-double of the season, while Jordan Goad recorded 49 assists and nine digs.
Maggie Bonomini made a match-high 19 digs, while Amy Grabiec added 11.
"We had a lot of different people step up and make plays for us on both offense and defense tonight," Voss said.
The first set was back and forth to start with CSU taking a slim 9-8 lead. From there, the Vikings used a 7-2 run, including three kills from Greulich, to extend the lead to 16-10.
Valpo would cut the lead to 17-13, but CSU would use a 7-1 run to push the lead to 24-14, setting up match point on Greulich's kill. Three serves later, she ended the set.
CSU jumped out quickly in the second set, taking a 5-1 lead behind the serving of Goad. However, the Crusaders battled back to take a 12-11 lead on a CSU attack error and force Voss to use a timeout.
The Crusaders extended the lead to as many as five points (19-14) as they never trailed the rest of the set to even the match at 1-1.
The third set was also close to start, but a mini 4-1 run by CSU gave the Vikings an 11-7 lead on a Fazio kill and Valpo could get no closer than two points the rest of the set.
Neither team could pull away to start the fourth set, but with the Vikings leading 18-16, they used a Fazio kill and back-to-back aces from Goad to push the lead to 21-16 and all but seal the match.
CSU hit .286 for the match, holding the Crusaders to a .142 percentage. The Vikings also finished with more kills (58-48), assists (56-46), aces (7-3), digs (60-56) and blocks (11-9).
CSU is back in action on Saturday (Oct. 24) evening when they host Butler at 6:00 p.m. The Bulldogs are the lone team to defeat CSU in league play this season, handing the Vikings a 3-2 setback on Sept. 25 in Indianapolis.
