Oct. 26, 2007
Contact: Greg Murphy
CHICAGO, Ill. - Cleveland State hit .357 as a team and Beth Greulich, the reigning Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week, posted a match-best 19 kills as the Vikings cruised to a 30-21, 30-20, 30-23 win over Loyola in Horizon League action Friday night at Alumni Gym.
CSU improved to 18-6 overall and 11-2 in the conference. The Vikings, who tied the program record for conference wins in a season (2005), remain one match behind Milwaukee, which rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Valparaiso, 3-2, on Friday night. Both CSU and Milwaukee have three conference matches left this season.
The Vikings, who trailed just five times the entire match, hit .412 in game one, .357 in game two and .308 in the final game. CSU amassed 54 kills as a team and committed just 13 attack errors in 115 swings.
"We were really solid hitting the ball today and picked our spots well," head coach Chuck Voss said. "We passed well tonight and were able to get into a good groove offensively."
CSU fell behind in game one, 10-5, but came back to knot the score at 16-16 on a kill from Greulich. From there, the Vikings outscored the Loyola, 14-5, to close the match. The second game was almost a mirror image of the first. CSU claimed a 16-14 lead midway through and used a 14-6 run to take a 2-0 lead. Greulich tallied three kills during the run, while Jenni Ramminger added two.
CSU made quick work of the Ramblers in the final game by riding the hot serving of Maggie Bonomini to a 7-0 lead. Loyola did manage a rally and pulled to within 22-20, but the Vikings scored eight of the final 11 points to earn the sweep.
Amy Benz finished with 11 kills and four blocks, while Ramminger and Alexis Korovich chipped in seven kills apiece. Ramminger hit .636 as she did not commit an error in 11 attempts. Mel Snyder recorded 48 assists and nine digs, while Bonomini and Jordan Bateman tallied 11 digs.
Loyola (7-17, 3-9 HL) was paced by Dana vanDiggelen who finished with 12 kills, while Alyse Serritella finished with a match-best 12 digs.
The Vikings conclude their two-match road swing through Chicago on Saturday afternoon when they travel to UIC for a 5:00 pm EDT match. It will be the final regular season road match for CSU.