Dec. 29, 2003

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

Game #10
Youngstown State (1-9, 0-0 HL) at
Cleveland State (3-6, 0-0 HL)
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Cleveland, Ohio/Henry J. Goodman Arena (13,610)
Tip-off: 7:00 p.m. EST
Live Stats: www.CSUVikings.com

The Opening Tip: Cleveland State takes to the court for the first time in 10 days when the Vikings host Youngstown State on Dec. 30. The game is the Horizon League opener for both schools and their 39th meeting all-time - CSU's second-oldest rival behind Wright State (40 games). CSU swept both meetings last year by an average of 27.0 ppg.

Noting The Penguins: Head coach Tisha Hill is in her first season at the helm of Youngstown State and first overall. Jessica Olmstead leads the Penguins in scoring at 11.6 ppg and is the only player averaging double-digit points. Cathy Hanek is second on the team at 9.7 ppg, while Jessica Forsythe is YSU's leading rebounder at 8.8 pg.

The Series With Youngstown State: Youngstown State leads the series by a wide 26-12 margin. However, Cleveland State has won four of the last six meetings, including a sweep of both games last year in which the Vikings averaged 85.0 ppg.

Head Coach Kate Peterson: In her first season directing the Cleveland State program, Kate Peterson is the sixth head coach in 31 seasons of Viking women's basketball. Peterson spent the past six years as an assistant at Wisconsin, serving as the recruiting coordinator starting in 1998. Prior to her stint in Madison, she worked at Eastern Illinois (1993-97) and Indiana (1991-93). A 1991 graduate of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, she earned Kodak All-America honors her senior year after setting the NCAA Division III record for three-point field goals per game at 3.85.

A Glance At The Staff: Peterson's trio of assistant coaches is headed by Al Brown, considered by many to be one of the top minds in the country in terms of X's and O's. The only person to coach in both the men's and women's national championship game, he spent six seasons at Tennessee, helping the Lady Vols to consecutive national championships in 1996, '97 & '98 as part of five Final Four appearances during his tenure. Kyle Rechlicz comes to CSU after serving as a student assistant coach last year at Wisconsin. An excellent long-range shooter, she finished her career as a Badger in 2002 by knocking down at least one triple in every game as a senior, including a school-record seven versus Holy Cross. Peterson's final assistant is San Antonio Silver Stars guard Semeka Randall. Born and raised in Cleveland, she starred at Trinity High in Garfield Heights and at Tennessee. After helping the Lady Vols to a national championship and a perfect 39-0 mark as a freshman, she went on to earn consensus All-America honors the next two seasons. She finished her career in 2001 as the fourth-leading scorer in school history with 1,915 points.

Rockin' Good Time: Tonight's game against Youngstown State will feature a "Holiday Homecoming With The Rockers," in which former members of the WNBA's Cleveland Rockers will take part in a Q & A session as well as an autograph signing.

Schrock Recognized: Senior Ashley Schrock, along with UW-Green Bay's Abby Scharlow, was named Horizon League Women's Basketball Co-Players of the Week on Dec. 22. Schrock averaged a double-double (17.7 ppg, 11.0 rpg) as she helped CSU to a pair of wins in three tries. At Robert Morris, she tallied 14 points, 11 rebounds and four assists as the Vikings snapped their four-game losing streak. Two days later, in CSU's first home game in four weeks, she notched 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists to lead the Vikings past Louisville. Schrock then capped off her week with a season-best 20 points and a career high-tying 15 rebounds against Ohio for her 10th career double-double. This marks the second time in her career that the league has recognized Schrock, with the other coming on Feb. 17, 2003. Scharlow was Schrock's teammate at CSU in 2000-01, before transferring to Green Bay.

Triple Threat: Cleveland State heads into Tuesday's contest with Youngstown State having made a three-point field goal in 310 consecutive contests - ranking behind only Louisville's current 363-game run in NCAA annals. The last time the Vikings failed to drain at least one three-pointer was in a 78-55 loss at Cincinnati on Dec. 17, 1992.

Ohio Recap: Playing for the third time in five days, Cleveland State (3-6) struggled in a 68-59 loss to Ohio (5-4) on Dec. 20 . The Vikings went 17-for-54 from the floor (31.5 percent) after making 50.0 percent of their field goal attempts in their previous two games - both victories.
Both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net early on as Ohio started 2-for-18 and CSU opened 3-for-13 as the score was tied 6-6 midway through the first half. The Vikings edged ahead 14-11 with five minutes remaining, only to see the Bobcats close out the opening stanza with a 16-2 run to take a 27-16 advantage into the locker room.
CSU trimmed the deficit to 36-31 five minutes into the second half only to see Ohio go on a 15-0 jaunt over the next six minutes to put the game out of reach.
The Bobcats, who shot just 33.8 percent from the field, held a 19-5 advantage in second-chance points thanks to 20 offensive rebounds, and in addition, turned 18 Viking turnovers into 18 points.
Senior Ashley Schrock paced the Vikings with 20 points and a career high-tying 15 rebounds for her 10th career double-double. Freshman Keena Rembert added a career-best 11 points and four rebounds, while senior Shannon Sword tallied 10 points and six rebounds.
Junior Andrea Johnson led Ohio with 20 points and five rebounds, while Kristian Kirkpatrick added a career-high 15 points.

Sword Still Sharp: Senior forward Shannon Sword finished last season on a tear, averaging 16.8 points over Cleveland State's final nine games. Evidently, the eight-month lay-off did nothing to break her stride, as she has opened the 2003-04 campaign by averaging 17.6 ppg to rank third in the league. Included in the impressive start was a double-double against Iowa State (16P, 10R) and a then career-high 23 points in CSU's win over Western Illinois. The Miamisburg, Ohio native then capped off an all-tournament performance at the Lady Pirate Invitational by torching Eastern Washington for a career-best 24 points on 10-for-14 shooting. She tallied a pair of 20-point games in CSU's last week of action, posting 20 at Robert Morris, followed by 22 more in the win over Louisville.

Free Throw Defense?: If the NCAA kept such a stat, the Vikings might be leading the nation in free throw percentage defense this season. Entering the contest with Youngstown State, CSU's opponents have shot just .630 from charity stripe. That stat will be put to the test Tuesday, as the Penguins are shooting .804 from the line.

Forward-Thinking Point Guard: A natural forward, senior Ashley Schrock filled in admirably the first five games at point guard, averaging 10.0 ppg, 6.2 rpg and 5.2 apg. However, since Erin Martin took over at point guard four games ago and Schrock shifted back to small forward, her numbers have improved noticeably, jumping to 15.3 ppg, 9.3 rpg and 3.0 apg. On the year, she ranks among the league leaders in scoring (T6th - 12.3), rebounding (5th - 7.6) and assists (3rd - 4.22).

Point Person: The Dec. 7 game at Akron marked the debut of sophomore Erin Martin at point guard. After fielding the same starting line-up for the first five games, Kate Peterson inserted Martin - who was finally fully recovered from a preseason ankle sprain - and sat Kim Neidermeyer. The move also allowed senior Ashley Schrock to slide over to her natural small forward spot. Martin has responded by averaging 10.8 ppg while swiping 15 steals in the four games. On the year, she has 27 of CSU's 84 steals and is second in the league with 3.00 spg.

"I'll Take 'S' Words For $1,000": With apologies to Saturday Night Live for the headline, senior Shannon Sword is solidifying her spot as one of the top sharpshooters in school history. She currently has the top career three-point percentage (.366) - 16 points ahead of her closest challenger. In addition, she is seventh in field goal percentage (.458) and would rank third in free throw percentage (.781) with 13 more attempts (146-187). Her .555 field goal percentage this year is second in the Horizon League.

Rickards In The Zone: Junior Maria Rickards' Horizon League season-best 33-point explosion at Niagara was unexpected, to say the least. She had scored just 14 points in CSU's first four games and entered the contest with a career-high of 12. However, the New Albany, Ind. native topped that with 13 points in the first half alone, adding 20 more in the second stanza to tie for 12th on the CSU single-game scoring charts, just seven points shy of the school record. She knocked down 14 of her 20 shots from the field, including 5-of-8 three-pointers on her way to becoming the first player to score 30 or more since Erika Roudebush tallied 30 against Detroit on Feb. 9, 2002.

Fiftysomething: In the process of picking up her first victory as a head coach, Kate Peterson accomplished something that hadn't been done in nearly six years. The 52 points the Vikings posted against Western Illinois were the fewest CSU has scored in a win since a 51-41 decision at Wright State on Jan. 2, 1997.

Vikings Picked Fourth: Cleveland State was picked fourth in the Horizon League preseason poll, marking the fourth year in a row that the Vikings have been tabbed to finish either fourth or fifth. 2003 regular season and tournament champion UW-Green Bay (219) and UW-Milwaukee (212) both garnered 13 place votes, but the Phoenix was picked to win its fifth consecutive regular season league title by a scant seven points. Loyola was slated to finish third with 158 points, followed by the Vikings (127), Illinois-Chicago (125) and Detroit (122). Butler and Youngstown State tied for seventh with 82 votes while Wright State brought up the rear with 45 points.

Schrock Recognized By League: Viking senior forward Ashley Schrock was one of five players named to the All-Horizon League preseason first team. Last year she averaged 13.2 ppg, 8.2 rpg and 5.1 apg en route to earning second team all-league accolades. She and UW-Milwaukee senior center Maria Viall are the only two returning all-league players.

Peterson Signs First Recruit: When the signed national letter of intent came across the fax machine on Nov. 12, Clinton, Wis. native Brittany Korth officially became the first recruit of the Kate Peterson era.
A 5-10 point guard, Korth led Clinton High School to a 24-4 record and their first-ever Division 3 state championship as a junior. She averaged 14.8 points per game, 4.3 assists per game and 2.3 rebounds per game last year en route to earning fourth team all-state and conference player of the year accolades. A three-time all-conference selection, she is rated the 180th-best senior and the 56th-best point guard in the nation by All-Star Girls Report.
Korth also starred on the Clinton volleyball team, earning conference player of the year honors as a junior and honorable mention all-conference the year before. In addition, she lettered three years on the track team, competing in the 100, 4x100, high jump and long jump. The school record-holder in the long jump (16-11), she was named the athlete of the meet at the 2003 conference championships.

Lights, Camera, Action: As part of the Horizon League's television package, Cleveland State's game at Loyola on Feb. 11 will be broadcast on Fox Sports. The contest will mark the Vikings' first-ever regular season appearance on TV. To accommodate the broadcast, the game was moved up one day to Wednesday.

Don't Feel "Left" Out: The saying goes that left-handers are the only people in their right minds. If that's the case, then Cleveland State should be in good shape this year. Senior Ashley Schrock, sophomores Kim Neidermeyer and Anetra Williams and freshman Keena Rembert are all southpaws. If Kate Peterson wanted to go small, she could field a line-up with a lefty at every spot but center.

Double Your Pleasure: Cleveland State is scheduled to play six doubleheaders with the men's team this season, twice the number as last year. The women's team will play mid-week twin-bills starting at 5:00 p.m. with the men's game tipping at 7:30 p.m. Saturday doubleheaders start earlier with the women jumping center at 3:00 p.m. followed by the men at 5:30 p.m.

New-Look Tournament: The Horizon League coaches voted over the summer to scrap the one-site format for the league's championship tournament. Starting this year, the eight seed will host the nine seed in a first round contest on March 2. Seeds 1-4 will host quarterfinal action two days later. The four winners will then head to UW-Milwaukee for the semifinals and championship, March 7 & 8. However, if the Panthers have been eliminated, the highest remaining seed will host the final two rounds.

Don't Forget...: To mark your calendars for 2006 and 2007. That's when the best women's basketball in the country comes to Cleveland. In 2006, Cleveland State, in conjunction with the Mid-American Conference, is hosting the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Mideast Regional at Gund Arena. The very next year, CSU and the MAC will host the NCAA Division I Women's Final Four.

CSU Teams Up With Habitat: On Oct. 21, Cleveland State used its day off to lend a helping hand in the community. The Vikings headed out to the Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity headquarters where, after receiving a brief introduction to the program, they jumped right in and helped with the ongoing site clean-up. The coaches and players spent the better part of the afternoon straightening up building supplies and hauling away discarded materials. CSU also donated the proceeds from their exhibition game on Nov. 9 to Habitat.

Up Next: Cleveland State takes to I-90 to face Bowling Green on Saturday. The Vikings then continue heading west as they return to conference play with a Monday night game at Illinois-Chicago.