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Vikings Face Albany In NCAA Championship First Round

Vikings Face Albany In NCAA Championship First Round
Posted: Nov 27, 2007

Nov. 27, 2007

Contact: Greg Murphy

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Quick Sets: Cleveland State will make its first appearance in the NCAA Championship when the Vikings open play against Albany on Friday at 5:00 p.m. in a first round contest at Penn State. It will be the first all-time meeting between the two schools.

Matchup at a Glance: CSU reached the tournament via an at-large berth by winning the Horizon League Tournament, while Albany won the America East Tournament title to earn an automatic berth.

About Albany: The Great Danes enter the tournament with an overall record of 23-9. Albany is led by freshman outside hitter Amanda Cowdrey, who averaged 3.51 kills and 3.41 digs per game en route to being named the A-East rookie of the year. First team all-conference middle blocker Kamisha Kellam, who tallied 3.30 kills and 1.06 blocks per game, and senior middle blocker Ashley Crenshaw, who averaged 3.24 kills and boasted a .337 hitting percentage on her way to an all-conference second team nod, also pace the Great Danes. Setter Brooke Stanley (10.75 apg) and libero Tawny Dahmes (4.26 dpg) earned all-rookie team honors.

A Look at the Bracket: The winner of Friday's Cleveland State-Albany contest will face the winner of the match between top-ranked Penn State and Siena on Saturday, Dec. 1, at 7:30 p.m. in a second round. Saturday's winner will advance to the regionals on Dec. 7-8, at Penn State.

On the Horizon: CSU heads into its 12th Horizon League Championship with an all-time mark of 5-11 in league tournament play. The Vikings advanced to the championship match in 2004 and the semifinals last season.

Vikings vs. The Field: CSU is 0-3 against teams in the NCAA Tournament, falling to Dayton (0-3), Kentucky (0-3) and Xavier (2-3).

Head Coach: In his eighth year at the helm of the Vikings, head coach Chuck Voss has methodically built the Viking 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 the Vikings to an 18-16 mark. Since then, CSU has recorded six straight winning seasons (2002-07), the most since the program opened with seven straight (1972-78). Voss has a 131-105 (.555) mark at CSU and moved into second place on the all-time wins list at CSU in a Sept. 21 win at Youngstown State. Voss, who has a 164-141 (.538) overall record in nine 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 , three league Co-Newcomer of the Year picks and one outright Newcomer of the Year selection..

What a Season: As if earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history wasn't enough, here is a look at some other accomplsihments by CSU in 2007.
• Cleveland State reached the 20-win plateau for the first time since the 1988 squad posted a 20-22 record.
• CSU won a program record 13 conference matches, bettering the old mark of 11 set in 2005.
• The Vikings' .741 winning percentage is the best mark since the 1982 squad won 78 percent of its matches (38-11).
• CSU's two seniors, Mel Snyder and Seanna Steinle, have led the Vikings to 75 wins during their careers, the most by a graduating class since 1984.

Succss Continues: With its win over Butler on Oct. 12, CSU clinched its sixth consecutive winning season, which is the second longest streak in school-history (2002-07). It trails the seven straight winning campaigns from 1972-78.

Home Sweet Home: CSU's win over Youngstown State on Nov. 10 enabled the Vikings to earn another program first as they finished the season with a perfect 8-0 mark at home in league matches. The previous best home mark in conference play was 6-1 in 2005 when the Vikings were swept by Milwaukee for their only loss in Woodling Gym. CSU was 8-2 overall in Woodling Gym this season with nonconference losses to Kent State and Dayton.

Records and Milestones: Several Vikings are approaching seasonal and career milestones heading into the NCAA Tournament.
• Mel Snyder has already set the single-season record for assists (1,440) and needs 30 assists to move into second place on the all-time list at CSU.
• Jordan Bateman has posted a single-season record 585 digs and needs five digs to move into sixth place all-time, and 48 digs to take over fourth place.
• Amy Benz needs 19 blocks to take over first place on the CSU single-season block list (200) and nine block assists to take over first place (167) on the single-season list.
• Alexis Korovich needs 40 attack attempts to move into 10th place on the single-season list and nine digs to move into fourth place on the single-season digs list (402). She is also 26 digs shy of third place (418).
• Jenni Ramminger is two block assists shy of 300 for her career.
• CSU needs nine kills to establish a new single season team record (1,914).
• The Vikings are 16 assists shy of breaking the team record for assists in a season (1,756) and 107 digs shy of the single-season school record (2,238).
• CSU needs 28.5 blocks to set a single-season record for blocks in a season (352.5).

Key Stats and Numbers:
• CSU has hit .241 and averaged 3.01 blocks in 23 wins, but hit just .189 with 1.99 blocks per game in its eight losses.
• In contrast, CSU has limited its opposition to a .142 hitting percentage in its 23 wins. However, in its eight losses, CSU has surrendered a .237 hitting percentage.
• Cleveland State is 7-3 when at least two players record a double-double in the same match.
• The Vikings are 19-4 when winning the first game and just 4-4 when losing game one.
• CSU is 4-2 when at least one player reaches the 20-kill mark. • Cleveland State has held nine of its last 10 opponents to a hitting percentage under .200. The lone exception was 17th-ranked Dayton which hit .400 (11/4).
• The Vikings are hitting .268 over the last four matches.
• Six of CSU's eight losses have come in five games.

Postseason Honors: The Vikings had three players named to the All-Horizon League first team in Amy Benz, Beth Greulich and Mel Snyder. It was the second time both Greulich and Snyder earned the honor in their careers. Benz was also voted as the league newcomer of the year and garnered a spot on the all-newcomer team.

Efficiency Breeds Success: CSU has outhit its opponents by 58 points (.226-.168) this season and has posted a better hitting percentage than their opponent all but six times in 2007. CSU is 0-6 in those matches. The Vikings hit a season-best .357 (54-13-115) in an Oct. 26 win at Loyola, marking their best day at the net since hitting .359 against Indiana State on Sept. 9, 2006. Amy Benz (.340), Beth Greulich (.307) and Jenni Ramminger (.286) rank first, third and fourth in the conference in hitting percentage.

Road Warriors: The Vikings finished 5-3 on the road in league contests this season, which tied the school-record for conference road wins in a season (2005). Even more impressive is that the Vikings have played 18 of their 27 matches away from Woodling Gym and are 12-6 in those contests.

Everybody Contributes: Most volleyball teams have one player who dominates the kill statistic. However, that is far from the case with the Vikings as they are the only squad in the league that has seven players with at least 100 kills, including at least six with 195. Setter Mel Snyder has distributed the ball evenly this season as Beth Greulich leads the way with 372 kills. She is followed by Alexis Korovich (365), Jenni Ramminger (294), Amy Benz (285), Liz Fazio (265) and Kayla Lefeld (197). For good measure, Snyder has tallied 101 kills of her own.

Get That First One: Getting off to a good start has been a key to CSU's success this season as the Vikings have won game one in 23 of their 31 matches. CSU went on to win 20 of those matches, including 11 sweeps.

Is Four the Key: Perhaps the Vikings should think about losing just one game every match. After all, CSU is a perfect 9-0 when its matches go four games this season.

20-20 Vision: Cleveland State finally got 20 - wins that is. With its 3-1 victory over Youngstown State on Nov. 10, the Vikings reached the 20-win plateua for the 10th time in school-history, but the first since the 1988 squad posted a 20-22 record. The last time CSU won more than 20 matches was in 1983 when the Vikings went 29-13.

Dishing it Out: Senior Mel Snyder is in her third and final season of directing the CSU offense at setter. A first team All-Horizon League selection each of the last two seasons, Snyder leads the league in assists (12.00 apg) for the second straight season. In addition, her 4,047 career assists rank third all-time at CSU, while her 129 career service aces are fifth best. She has recorded 11 double-doubles this season and has six matches with at least 60 assists this season. Snyder saved one of her best matches of the season for the league championship as she recorded 58 assists, eight digs and eight kills.

On the Dig: Libero Jordan Bateman has anchored the Viking backrow this season as she has totaled a school-record 585 digs to break her own school-record of 457 set last season. Bateman tallied a career-high 36 digs in a win over Milwaukee (9/29) to come within one dig of the school-record of 37 set by Elisa Caraulia in 1987.

Liking the League: Beth Greulich, a two-time all-league selection and last year's co-newcomer of the year, has proven that her rookie season was no fluke by picking up her game during league play. After hitting a respectable .285 and averaging 2.68 kills and 0.85 blocks per game in 12 nonconference matches, Greulich raised those numbers to .328, 3.29 kills and 0.98 blocks per game in 16 conference matches. Over the last 11 matches, Greulich averaged 14.5 kills and 3.5 blocks per game. She posted a career-best 21 kills and hit .514 (21-2-37) in a win at Green Bay on Oct. 20 and followed that effort by hitting .531 and totaling 19 kills in a win at Loyola six days later. Greulich is a two-time Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week this season.

Leaping Lizard: After opening the season with double-digit kills in 11 of the first 13 matches, Liz Fazio went through a tough midseason stretch, but has seemed to find her groove over the last three weeks. The Akron native closed the season strong by averaging 9.7 kills per game over the final six matches of the season, inclduing 15 in the league semifinal win over Wright State. It was her highest total since a 19-kill effort at Southern Illinois on Sept. 7.

Ace, Ace, Baby: Over the last month, the Vikings have crept up to first place in the league standings in aces per game (1.92) with 119 service aces since Oct. 5. Included in that stretch are five matches with double-digit aces, including a season-best 13 in a win over Youngstown State (11/10). CSU has three players ranked in the top-10 in service aces in the league with Jenni Ramminger fourth (0.34), Jordan Bateman seventh (0.33) and Kayla Lefeld ninth (0.31). CSU has 231 aces this season, while giving up just 145 in 120 games played. In 65 league games, CSU tallied 126 aces while surrendering a mere 66.

This Team is Smart: The Vikings have been honored for their exceptional performance in the classroom as a recipient of the Game Time/American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the third straight year. CSU, which is just one of just 55 Division I schools to earn the award, carried a team grade point average of 3.646 during the 2006-07 school year. The award, which began during the 1992-93 academic year, honors college and high school teams that display excellence in the classroom by maintaining a cumulative 3.30 GPA or better during the school year.