Nov. 7, 2011

Contact: Renee Adam

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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Cleveland State junior outside hitter Kara Koch has been named the Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week and senior libero Amy Grabiec has been named the league's Defensive Player of the Week after the duo led the Vikings to a pair of league victories last weekend. The Horizon League made the announcement Monday (Nov. 7) afternoon.

"Both Kara and Amy are very deserving of these awards, they both played extremely well in both matches last weekend," head coach Chuck Voss said. "This kind of play is what you expect from the leaders on your team, and they have been giving us this type of effort all season long."

In Cleveland State's 3-2 victory over UIC last Friday (Nov. 4), Koch set a CSU match record with 35 kills against the Flames, while it also marked the fourth highest single match total in the Horizon League record book.

Koch then became the 14th Viking to record 1,000 career kills in Saturday's contest against Valparaiso, as she posted a match-high 22. Entering the final week of the regular season she has 1,005 kills on her career, and ranks second in the league with 357 (4.10 per set) this season.

Grabiec also set a CSU match record against UIC last Friday, as she posted 39 digs in the five-set victory. Grabiec's 39-dig effort was the most by a Horizon League player this season, and ranks seventh on the all-time league record list.

She then tallied a team-high 15 digs against the Crusaders, which moved her into second place on the CSU all-time career digs list with 1,418. Grabiec has tallied 384 digs on the season, and ranks fifth in the league averaging 4.41 digs per set.

The Vikings will close out the regular season with a pair of home contests this weekend, as CSU hosts Loyola at 7:00 p.m. on Friday (Nov. 11) and Green Bay at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday (Nov. 12).