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Vikings Travel to Wisconsin For Two Matches

Vikings Travel to Wisconsin For Two Matches
Posted: Nov 03, 2008

Nov. 3, 2008

Contact: Greg Murphy

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QUICK SETS: Cleveland State begins the stretch run to the Horizon League Championship when the Vikings hit the road for two matches in Wisconsin to begin a three-match roadtrip to conclude the regular season. CSU will play at Milwaukee on Friday, Nov. 7, before heading to Green Bay for a Saturday (Nov. 8) contest.

REVIEWING LAST WEEK: The Vikings hosted their final two regular season home matches of the season last weekend. Here are brief recaps of each match.

Match 22: CSU 3, Butler 0 (Oct. 31, Cleveland, Ohio) - 25-21, 25-22,25-22
Cleveland State avenged a loss at Butler earlier in the season with a 3-0 sweep of the Bulldogs. Kayla Lefeld (12) and Amy Benz (10) recorded double-digit kills, while Jordan Bateman made 24 digs.

Match 23: Valparaiso 3, CSU 0 (Nov. 1, Cleveland, Ohio) - 25-23, 25-22, 25-23
Angie Porche tallied 14 kills and 13 digs as Valparaiso earned a tight three-set win over Cleveland State. Jenni Ramminger's 12 kills led CSU, while Kayla Lefeld had nine kills and eight digs.

PREVIEWING THE VIKINGS: Cleveland State begins the final two weeks of the regular season in hopes of moving up the standings to improve its seed for the league championship. Freshman Jordan Goad (9.70 ast/s, 1.62 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 221 kills and a .251 hitting percentage. Senior middle hitter Jenni Ramminger (2.31 k/s, 0.85 blk/s) and sophomore middle blocker Amy Benz (2.12 k/s, .272, 0.97 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 (2.37 k/s, 1.65 d/s) and Liz Fazio (2.03 k/s). This year's squad may be the best defensive squad in Voss' tenure, led by libero Jordan Bateman (4.14 d/s), the CSU record holder for career digs (1,443). She is joined in the backrow by junior Maggie Bonomini (2.59 d/s), sophomore Meghan Mental (0.88 d/s) and freshman Amy Grabiec (1.67 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 137-124 (.525) mark at CSU, ranking second on the all-time wins list. Voss, who has a 170-159 (.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 have had another avenue to catch the Vikings this season as all nine home matches were 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 as will the entire Horizon League Championship from Nov. 20-23 in Woodling Gym.

WHERE WE STAND: With two weeks left in the Horizon League schedule, the Vikings are in sixth place with a 5-8 mark, one-half match ahead of seventh place UIC and Green Bay (4-8) and two matches ahead of ninth place Youngstown State (3-10). CSU is one-and-a-half matches behind fifth place Loyola and three matches behind fourth place Butler. The Vikings cannot finish any higher than fourth place and if Butler wins one of its final three matches, CSU is assured of finishing no higher than fifth place.

BIG CROWD: It would be safe to say that Saturday's Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) Day was a huge success as the event drew a school-record 982 fans. It topped the old mark of 913 set on Oct. 21, 2005, on CYO Day against Wright State.

SPREADING THE WEALTH: Freshman setter Jordan Goad has done an admirable job of getting each of CSU's hitters involved in the offensive scheme as six players have had at least 300 attack attempts this season. Kayla Lefeld leads the way with 588 with Beth Greulich second at 549. Amy Benz (493) and Jenni Ramminger (476) are closing in on 500 attempts for the year, while Liz Fazio (418) and Alexis Korovich (312) have also topped the 300 swing mark.

BATEMAN ADDS TO RECORD: With 31 digs in two matches last weekend, senior libero Jordan Bateman raised her career school-record dig total to 1,442. Her total is also the seventh highest in Horizon League history and with 58 more digs, she will become just the sixth player in league annals to reach 1,500 career digs.Bateman, who has eight 20-dig matches this season, ranks fifth in the conference in digs (4.14) this season.

27 MORE DIGS TO GO: Jordan Bateman is just 27 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.

WELCOME BACK, LEX: After missing the last eight matches, including the previous seven due to a knee injury, Alexis Korovich made her return to the court on Saturday, Nov. 1, drawing a starting assignment against Valparaiso. She finished with two digs after being honored in a pre-match Senior Day ceremony as it was the final regular season home match of her career.

LEFELD EMBRACES STARTING ROLE: Junior Kayla Lefeld has picked up her game since being inserted into the starting lineup 11 matches ago. During that stretch, Lefeld has recorded five double-doubles and is averaging 12.1 kills and 9.6 digs per match, while also contributing 15 aces, 14 blocks and hitting .183. She tied her career-high with 14 digs versus Youngstown State (Oct. 7) and set a season-high with 19 kills at UIC on Oct. 17.

JENNI ON THE BLOCK: Senior Jenni Ramminger has continued to climb up the all-time blocks list at CSU. Ramminger, who has made 73 blocks this year, is fourth on the all-time blocks list in CSU history (406) and third in on the block assists chart with 363 for her career.

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.

GOOD RECEIVERS: One reason for the disparity in service aces between CSU and its opposition this season has been the Vikings serve-receive defense. Through 23 matches, CSU has totaled just 94 reception errors in 91 sets to rank second in the league behind Valparaiso's 91.

FIVE ALIVE: Cleveland State's 3-2 win over Wright State on Oct. 25 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 coming back to win the final three.

WE WANT A SWEEP: Four of CSU's six wins this season have come via 3-0 sweeps. In fact, the Vikings are 4-5 in three set matches this season, but just 2-12 in matches that go more than three sets.

UP NEXT: CSU concludes the regular season when the Vikings travel to Youngstown State for a 7:00 p.m. match on Friday, Nov. 14, against their in-state rival.