Nov. 30, 2007
Contact: Greg Murphy
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Cleveland State, making its first appearance in the NCAA Championship, fell to Albany, 30-20, 30-20, 30-25, in a first round match on Friday night at Penn State's Rec Hall.
The loss ends CSU's season at 23-9, while Albany advances to the second round to face the winner of Friday's other match between Penn State and Siena on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in Rec Hall.
Beth Greulich led CSU with 10 kills, while Alexis Korovich had nine. Mel Snyder dished out 29 assists and Jordan Bateman totaled a match-best 14 digs.
Valerie Sourbeer and Amanda Cowdrey tallied 11 kills apiece to lead Albany, while Brooke Stanley handed out 33 assists.
"All the credit to Albany," head coach Chuck Voss said. "They really came out swinging and played extremely well. We were a little jittery at the beginning of the match and never really recovered. I saw us make mistakes tonight that we hadn't made all season.
"But I am very proud of this team," Voss continued. "We had a great season and have a lot of youth on the roster. I think our best years are still ahead of us."
Albany controlled a majority of game one as the Vikings could not seem to switch the momentum after the Great Danes raced out to an 8-3 lead to force an early CSU timeout. Albany would push the advantage to as many as 10 points as the Great Danes hit .375 (14-2-32) for the game. In addition, four different players recorded three kills apiece for Albany, which held an 8-1 advantage in blocks in game one.
CSU took its first lead of the match when back-to-back kills from Beth Greulich and Alexis Korovich gave the Vikings a 2-0 advantage to open game two. However, the lead was short-lived as Albany came back with four straight points to take a 4-2 lead and never relinquished it. For as good as the Great Danes played in game one, they were even better in the second game, hitting .586 (19-2-29).
The Vikings hung tough with Albany in the early stages of game three, trailing 10-7 after an Amy Benz kill. However, Albany went on a 10-3 run to open up a 20-10 lead in claiming the win.
CSU hit .094 (40-29-117), while Albany was a scorching .387, committing just nine errors with 45 kills on 93 attempts. In addition, the Great Danes held advantages in digs (42-37), blocks (12-5), aces (6-5) and assists (39-34).
