Oct. 30, 2009
Contact: Greg Murphy
CHICAGO, Ill. - Cleveland State extended its winning streak to 12 straight and strengthened its hold on first place in the Horizon League with a 3-1 victory at Loyola on Friday night in Horizon League action.
The Vikings improved to 23-5 overall and 11-1 in the league. Combined with Valparaiso's 3-1 loss at Butler tonight, the Vikings now have a two game lead over the Crusaders in the race for the top spot in the league and the right to host the Horizon League Championship.
Loyola fell to 10-15 overall and 3-9 in the league.
Match scores were 25-21, 21-25, 25-14, 32-30.
"I am really proud of the way we battled tonight," head coach Chuck Voss said. "We didn't play our best tonight, but we hung in there and did enough to win. We hung in there and didn't lose our cool at key times throughout the match, especially in that fourth set. We still have a lot of important matches left and need to stay mentally tough and limit our mistakes."
CSU's 12 match win streak is tied for the second longest streak in school history with the 1974 team. The program record for most consecutive matches won is 16, held by the 1976 squad.
The 23 wins are tied with the 2007 squad for the seventh most in a single season in school history.
"We have been playing some great volleyball during the streak and getting it done on both offense and defense," Voss said. "We have to continue to play smart and stay mentally tough, especially when things are not going our way. I thought we did a great job of keeping our composure tonight."
Maggie Bonomini led CSU's defensive effort with a career-high 30 digs, topping her old record of 29 set at Butler earlier this year. Amy Grabiec added 12 digs, while Jordan Goad had 11 to go with 47 assists and seven kills.
CSU finished with 73 digs, compared to 53 for the Ramblers.
Liz Fazio hammered out 23 kills, while Beth Greulich added 15 and Kara Koch 10.
With the first set tied at 8-8, the Vikings used a 5-0 run to open up a 13-8 lead on a Greulich kill. CSU would push the lead to 19-10 en route to winning the first set.
Set two was close throughout, but Loyola would break a 15-15 tie with four straight points, assuming a 19-15 lead. CSU came back to score the next four points, tying the set at 19-19, but the Ramblers closed the set on a 6-2 run to tie the match at one set apiece.
A 6-0 CSU run early in the third set broke an 8-8 tie and gave the Vikings a 14-8 lead. Loyola would get no closer than five points the rest of the set.
The Ramblers took a quick 6-2 lead to open the fourth set, forcing Voss to use his first timeout. The Vikings responded with a 10-6 run, enabling them to knot the set at 12-12. It was the third of 13 ties in the set.
Holding a slim 20-19 lead, Loyola would score the next three points to take 23-19 advantage. However, back-to-back kills by Fazio, a service ace from Goad and a kill by Greulich would bring the Vikings all the way back, evening the set at 23-23.
A Rambler block gave them first shot at set point, but a Fazio kill ended that hope, tying the set at 25-25.
From there, each team had three cracks to win the set, but it wasn't until a Bonomini service ace and a Fazio kill gave the Vikings the set and the match.
CSU hit .237 for the match, keeping them on track to set a school record for hitting percentage in a season.
The Vikings conclude their weekend in Chicago with a 5:00 p.m. EST match at UIC on Saturday (Oct. 31).
