Oct. 27, 2008
Contact: Greg Murphy
Complete Release in PDF Format 
QUICK SETS: Cleveland State concludes its regular season home slate when the Vikings host a pair of matches this weekend. CSU welcomes Butler to Woodling Gym on Friday, Oct. 31, at 7:00 p.m. before entertaining Valparaiso at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1. The Vikings are tied for sixth place in the Horizon League with a 4-7 mark, three matches behind Butler and Valparaiso who are tied for second place at 7-4 and two matches behind fifth place Loyola (6-5).
REVIEWING LAST WEEK: The Vikings hosted a pair of matches last week, including their final nonconference match. Here are brief recaps of each match.
Match 20: Bowling Green 3, CSU 1 (Oct. 21, Cleveland, Ohio) - 16-25, 25-19, 25-16, 18-25, 8-15
Cleveland State raced out to a 2-1 lead, but Bowling Green won the final two sets to earn a 3-2 win over the Vikings. Jenni Ramminger led three Vikings in double-digit kills with 12, while Jordan Goad handed out 43 assists and Maggie Bonomini contributed 15 digs.
Match 21: CSU 3, Wright State 2 (Oct. 25, Cleveland, Ohio) - 26-28, 21-25, 25-17, 25-14, 15-12
The Vikings erased a 2-0 deficit, winning the final three sets to claim a five-set win over Wright State. Five players tallied double-digit kills, including Kayla Lefeld who finished with a double-double effort of 13 kills and 11 digs. Jordan Bateman had a season-high 29 digs to become the CSU career record holder for digs (1,411).
PREVIEWING THE VIKINGS: Cleveland State continues its second round through the Horizon League schedule in hopes of moving up the standings to improve its seed for the league championship. Freshman Jordan Goad (9.57 ast/s, 1.57 dps) has taken the reigns as the starting setter and continues to develop a good rapport with each of CSU's hitters. Junior opposite Beth Greulich, a two-time first team all-league selection, leads the team with 211 kills and a .268 hitting percentage. Senior middle hitter Jenni Ramminger (2.22 k/s, 0.85 blk/s) and sophomore middle blocker Amy Benz (2.06 k/s, .264, 0.96 blk/s) are CSU's top players in the middle of the court. A talented group of experienced outside hitters is led by juniors Kayla Lefeld (2.28 k/s, 1.60 d/s) and Liz Fazio (1.98 k/s). This year's squad may be the best defensive squad in Voss' tenure, led by libero Jordan Bateman (4.07 d/s), the CSU record holder for career digs (1,411). She is joined in the backrow by junior Maggie Bonomini (2.52 d/s), sophomore Meghan Mental (0.88 d/s) and freshman Amy Grabiec (1.63 d/s).
THE HEAD COACH: In his ninth year at the helm of the Viking volleyball program, head coach Chuck Voss has methodically built the program from the ground up. He inherited a team that had not enjoyed a winning season in 17 years and turned things around in his third season (2002) when he led CSU to an 18-16 mark. CSU recorded six straight winning seasons (2002-07), the most since the program opened with seven straight (1972-78). Voss has a 136-123 (.525) mark at CSU, ranking second on the all-time wins list. Voss, who has a 169-158 (.517) overall record in 10 seasons, has mentored the only two All-Americans in school history, the 2005 Horizon League Player of the Year, 13 first team all-league picks, eight all-newcomer team members and four league Newcomer of the Year picks.
FOLLOW THE VIKINGS: Fans of CSU volleyball will have another avenue to catch the Vikings this season as all nine home matches will be video streamed online via the Horizon League Network. To access the video, visit www.CSUVikings.com and click on the "Watch Live" link on the front page or the volleyball schedule page. In addtion, CSU's matches at Valparaiso, Butler, Loyola, Green Bay and Youngstown State will also be video streamed online.
SENIOR SENDOFF: Saturday afternoon's match against Valparaiso will serve as Senior Day with the Viking trio of Jordan Bateman, Alexis Korovich and Jenni Ramminger being honored in a pre-match ceremony. Bateman, the schools career dig leader with 1,411, set the CSU single season record with 599 digs last season. Korovich, who is out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury, has appeared in 88 matches and ranks among the schools top-10 list for kills and points per game. Ramminger has played in 106 career matches with 103 starts, is fourth all-time in total blocks (401) and third in block assists (358).
FIVE ALIVE: Saturday's (Oct. 25) 3-2 win over Wright State marked the first time in eight matches this season that the Vikings won a five-set match. Even more impressive was that CSU lost the first two sets before winning the final three.
GHOSTS AND GOBLINS: Friday's match against Butler will mark the 17th time that a CSU volleyball team will play on Halloween. The Vikings, who claim an all-time record of 6-10 on Oct. 31, have not played on Halloween since a 3-1 loss at UIC during the 2003 season.
BATEMAN BREAKS RECORD: Senior Jordan Bateman tallied a season-high 29 digs in Saturday's 3-2 win over Wright State and in the process became the school-record holder for career digs. Bateman, who now has 1,411 career digs, moved past Emily Clark's old record of 1,406. Bateman, who has seven 20-dig matches this season, is averaging 5.04 digs per set in league games.
58 MORE DIGS TO GO: Jordan Bateman is just 58 digs shy of reaching 400 for the third consecutive season. She is already the only player in program history to have two 400 dig seasons (2006, 2007) and is the only player to reach 500 digs, recording a school-record 599 last season.
LEAPING LIZARD: Junior Liz Fazio appears to be heating up just in time for the stretch run as she averaged 2.70 kills per set in two matches last week. Against Wright State on Saturday, Fazio finished with a season-best 18 kills and just three errors in 37 attempts (.351). Over the last four matches, she is averaging 11.8 kills per match, while having at least 32 swings in three of those four matches.
ACE, ACE, BABY: The Vikings have dominated the serving statistic this season, holding a 121-86 advantage in service aces this season. Jordan Bateman leads the way with 24 while also ranking sixth in the Horizon League (0.29). Kayla Lefeld and Jordan Goad are tied for seventh in the league with 0.28 aces per set.
LEFELD EMBRACES STARTING ROLE: Junior Kayla Lefeld has picked up her game since being inserted into the starting lineup nine matches ago. During that stretch, Lefeld has recorded five double-doubles and is averaging 12.4 kills and 9.7 digs per match, while also contributing 14 aces, 13 blocks and hitting .178. She tied her career-high with 14 digs versus Youngstown State (Oct. 7) and set a season-high with 19 kills at UIC on Friday (Oct. 17).
AND PROVES HER SMARTS: Kayla Lefeld was honored as the U.S. Army Horizon League Female Scholar-Athlete of the Week for the week of action ending Oct. 12. The St. Henry, Ohio, native averaged 13.3 kills and 13.0 digs per match in helping the Vikings to a 2-1 week. She carries a 3.78 grade point average as a middle childhood education major.
BENZ LIKES PLAYING WITH BLOCKS: Amy Benz has continued her rapid ascent up the CSU career blocks list, ranking ninth in CSU history with 266 career blocks. She is also ninth on the all-time block assist list with 229, just 18 shy of neighth place. Benz ranks sixth in the league in blocks (0.96).
IT'S ALL GOAD: Freshman setter Jordan Goad has continued to develop good chemistry with CSU's hitters since taking over as the starting setter in the third match of the season. Goad, who is second in the Horizon League in assists (9.57 ast/s) handed out a career-best 60 assists in Saturday's win over Wright State, including 19 in the first set. In addition, she made 12 digs to record her fourth double-double of the season.
UP NEXT: CSU travels to Wisconsin for a pair of matches next weekend. The Vikings will play at Milwaukee on Friday, Nov. 7, beginning at 7:00 p.m. CST, before travelling to Green Bay on Saturday, Nov. 8, for a 4:00 p.m. CST match.
