Nov. 5, 2010
By: Robert Ivory
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CLEVELAND, Ohio- In the first Horizon League home match for the Vikings in nearly a month, Cleveland State volleyball got their 20th win of the season and beat Loyola in straight sets Friday night at Woodling Gym.
"We came out and played with intensity," head coach Chuck Voss said. "We we able to get early leads in the first two sets and use that momentum throughout the match. I thought our defense played pretty well and made a lot of key digs and blocks."
Kara Koch led the Vikings with 12 kills and Jordan Goad had 25 assists. Good teamwork prevailed for the Vikes as they had nine service aces as a team, with Megan Barhorst leading the squad with five.
The win moves the Vikings 20-4 overall and 10-3 in league play. The 20 wins is the 12th time the Vikings have reached that milestone in school history. In recent time, the Vikings have reached that mark now three of the past four years.
"It's nice to get to twenty wins again," Voss said. "It shows that our program is going on the right direction, but we have bigger goals, too."
Match scores were 25-11, 25-10, and 25-22.
The first set belonged to the Vikings as they set the tone for the evening. The Vikes took the first ten out of eleven points with Megan Barhorst serving. She also served for nine of those points and added four service aces in that stretch.
As a team, the Vikings hit .400 for the set and ran out to a 1-0 lead.
The second set was much of the same as the Vikings punched eight straight points to start the set, aided, again, by Barhorst serving. Loyola put three on the scoreboard after the Viking run, but the Ramblers could not put more than two consecutive points together after that point.
The Vikings solidified their win later in the set, when Cleveland State put nine straight points on the board. In fact, the kill by Barhorst to end the set was the only single point that CSU scored in the set, all other points were accompanied with at least one other point before Loyola could score.
The final set was the closest of the night, as Loyola would rally from being down 11-9 to lead, their first lead of the night, at 12-11. The Ramblers could not hold off the hot Vikings as Cleveland State would retake the lead at 17-16, courtesy of an Amy Grabec service ace.
Loyola kept the heat on the Vikes and strung together three straight point to retake the lead at 22-21. However, the Vikings got two kills each from Amy Benz and Kara Koch, including the match winner.
Loyola falls the 9-17 and 2-12 in the Horizon League.
The Vikings wrap up the home portion of league play Saturday (Nov. 6) starting at 4:00 p.m. against Valparaiso at Woodling Gym.
