Nov. 6, 2010
Contact: Greg Murphy
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Valparaiso's Katie Britton had 13 kills to lead Valparaiso to a 3-0 sweep of Cleveland State in Horizon League volleyball action on Saturday afternoon in Woodling Gym.
Match scores were 32-30, 25-19, 25-18.
The loss drops the Vikings to 21-4 overall and 10-4 in the Horizon League, while Valpo improves to 23-6 overall and 10-5 in league play.
Today's contest was the final one in Woodling Gym for CSU's three seniors, Amy Benz, Lindsey Griffith and Meghan Mental who were all honored in a pre-match ceremony.
"It's always tough to say goodbye to a group of seniors and today was no different," head coach Chuck Voss said. "It would have been nice to get a win for this group to send them out the right way, but we couldn't get it done today.
The first set was the most exciting, featuring 19 ties and six lead changes. CSU took the largest lead of the set at 19-15 on a Jackie Dabbelt kill. However, the Crusaders scored four straight points to tie the set at 19-19.
Valpo would go on to take a 24-22 lead on a Katie Britton kill, setting up two match points. However, a Kara Koch kill and Valpo attack error evened things up at 24-24 and the teams continued to trade points until back-to-back attack errors by CSU gave Valpo the first set.
"I thought it was huge when they won a set like that," Voss said. "They took a lot of momentum from that moving forward."
Valpo rode that momentum to a 9-5 lead in the second set, only to watch the Vikings come back with four of the next five points to pull within 10-9 on a Lindsey Griffith kill.
However, an 8-3 run by the Crusaders gave them an 18-12 lead as they eventually pushed the advantage to as many as nine points.
Valpo took a quick 6-2 lead in the third set, forcing a quick CSU timeout. From there, CSU cut its deficit to 10-8, but the Crusaders went on to score the next three points, reagaining a five point advantage (13-8).
CSU had one more run, scoring five straight points to tie things up at 13-13, but five straight points from the Crusaders gave them an 18-13 advantage en route to the sweep.
Koch led the Vikings with nine kills and nine digs, while Griffith finished with eight kills and Benz six. Amy Grabiec made 14 digs and Jordan Goad handed out 38 assosts.
Jenny Pokorny dished out 40 assists with six digs for the Crusaders, while Taylor Root made a match-best 18 digs.
The Vikings conclude the regular season with a pair of matches next weekend, playing at Wright State at 7:00 p.m. on Friday (Nov. 12) before heading to Butler for a 5:00 p.m. contest on Saturday (Nov. 13).
