Nov. 23, 2008
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Attempting to become the highest seeded team to ever win the Horizon League Championship, sixth-seeded Cleveland State fell just short as top-seeded Milwaukee won the final two sets to earn a 3-2 win over the Vikings in the league title match on Sunday afternoon in Woodling Gym.
Match scores were 20-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-20, 17-15.
The Vikings, who captured their first-ever league championship last season in Milwaukee, fell to 10-19, while the Panthers improved to 23-8 and earned the Horizon League's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.
"This is a tough match to lose, but I am proud of the way our team battled and persevered all weekend," head coach Chuck Voss said. "I am extremely proud of the strides we made as a team this season and think we really developed as a team as the season went on.
"It's disappointing to lose the championship match on our home court. The atmosphere was outstanding all weekend and the fans did a great job of adding a lot of energy and intensity to our matches. But Milwaukee is a great team and was able to make some key plays down the stretch. They did a nice job blocking today and I think that was the difference in the match.
The Panthers held an 18-4 advantage in blocks, led by 6.5 from tournament MVP Maddie Sueppel who also had a match-best 17 kills.
Jenni Ramminger led the Vikings with 15 kills, while Kayla Lefeld, Beth Greulich and Amy Benz had 12 each.
Benz, last season's tournament MVP, earned a spot on the all-tournament team for the second straight season along with Greulich.
Jordan Goad finished with 55 assists, 11 digs and five kills, while Maggie Bonomini and Amy Grabiec tied for match-high honors with 16 digs each.
Becky Peters had 14 kills and 13 digs for the Panthers, while Samantha Trawitzke and Kellye Zaporski combined for 48 assists.
After splitting the first two sets, the teams went to a deciding fifth set and the Vikings took a 13-11 lead on a Lefeld kill. Back-to-back blocks from the Panthers brought the match to even at 13-13, but a Ramminger kill set up championship point for the Vikings.
However, UWM stayed alive on a Peters kill. Liz Fazio's kill gave CSU another championship point, but once again, Milwaukee stayed alive on a kill by Natalie Schmitting. An attack error by the Vikings followed, giving UWM its first championship point, and Schmitting ended the match with a tip kill over the Viking defense to give the Panthers their fifth league title.
The Vikings battled back to win the first set after falling behind 8-3. Still trailing 13-9, CSU rattled off four consecutive points to knot the set at 13-13 and would take the lead for good on a UWM attack error to make it 15-14.
From there, CSU went on a 7-2 run to extend the lead to 22-16, as Benz had a pair of kills and Lefeld added an ace.
Milwaukee evened the match at the intermission by breaking open the second set late. Leading by just one (18-17), UWM scored three of the next four points to take a 21-18 lead on a CSU attack error. CSU did manage to slice the its deficit to 24-22, but a Peters kill concluded the set and evened the match at 1-1.
CSU returned the favor in the third set, closing the set on an 11-4 run to break a 14-14 tie and take a 2-1 lead.
Facing elimination, the Panthers were able to come back and win the fourth set. UWM raced out to a quick 7-4 lead, but CSU responded with a 5-2 run to claim a 9-8 lead on a Milwaukee attack error. However, an 8-4 run by the Panthers gave them a 16-13 lead and that lead swelled to 21-16 on a Kerri Schuh kill. CSU could get no closer the rest of the set as it moved to the deciding fifth set.
Both teams were also coming off tough five set wins in the semifinals with Milwaukee defeating Butler and CSU fending off Valparaiso on Saturday.
In the fifth set, CSU took a quick 5-2 lead, but the Panthers came back with four straight points to assume a 6-5 lead. The Vikings came back and led by two points on four different occasions before the final exciting points.
CSU is slated to conclude its season on Saturday (Nov. 29) when the Vikings travel to Kent State for a 2:00 p.m. match.
