Nov. 13, 2009
Contact: Renee Adam
Indianapolis, Ind. - The Cleveland State men's soccer team's 2009 season came to a close with a 2-1 loss to Butler in the semi-finals of the Horizon League Championship. This is just the third time since 2002 that the Vikings made an appearance in the semi-finals of the conference tournament.
"I thought we played with a lot of heart today, we just didn't get the outcome that we would have liked to see," head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "It's sad to see the season end like this, but all in all we had a great season with a lot of players stepping up to do their part throughout the year, and I am looking forward to seeing how the returners improve over the spring and summer. The seniors will surely be missed, with everything that they have done for this program over the past four seasons."
Butler was able to score two goals in a little over three minutes to put the Bulldogs up 2-0 just eight minutes into the second half of action. Ben Sippola put Butler up 1-0 when he beat the Viking defense and Brad Stuver in the net from six yards out off passes from Michael Clayton and Kyle Vondenbenken.
The second Butler goal came when Boris Gatzky converted a penalty kick in the 53rd minute, following a CSU foul in the box putting the score at 2-0.
Slavisa Ubiparipovic started the Viking come back in the 77th minute when he put a shot high, bouncing into the net off the crossbar after Admir Suljevic found him from the left side of the box. Ubiparipovic's goal put the score at 2-1, which would go on to be the final outcome of the match.
The Bulldogs led in shots through the whole match, ending with a 20-6 advantage. The Vikings had three shots on goal during the match, Justin Mancine, Marco DiFranco and Ubiparipovic each recording one.
Stuver posted five saves for the Vikings, giving him 58 saves on the season, leading the CSU goalies.
"Brad had a great freshman season with us," Kazemaini said. "He really became one of the top goalies in the conference and I'm sure everyone will be waiting to see how he improves over the off season."
The Vikings end the season with a 7-8-5 record, the second most wins in a season since 2002 when CSU posted 10 wins.
Ubiparipovic and Difranco represented the Vikings on the 2009 Horizon League All-Tournament Team following their performances during the first round match against UIC and the semi-final match against Butler.
Below is a listing of the 2009 Horizon League All-Tournament Team:
Marco DiFranco, Cleveland State
Slavisa Ubiparipovic, Cleveland State
Danny Jeftich, Valparaiso
Adrian Ortiz, Valparaiso
Boris Gatzky, Butler
Ben Sippola, Butler
Kyle VondenBenken, Butler
JC Banks, Green Bay
David Prochazka, Green Bay
Scotty Raymonds, Green Bay
Ryan Wehking, Green Bay (MVP)
