Oct. 13, 2007
Final Stats
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State snapped a four-match losing streak to Wright State and won for the ninth straight time with a 30-26, 27-30, 36-34, 30-18 win over the Raiders in Horizon League action Saturday afternoon in Woodling Gym.
CSU improved to 16-5 overall and 9-1 in league play, while avenging a 3-2 loss at Wright State on Sept. 14. That was also the last time the Vikings lost a match.
"This was another great win for our team," head coach Chuck Voss said. "We grinded out a lot of points and really responded in the third game. I thought we carried a lot of momentum over to the fourth game and hit the ball well."
Sophomore Alexis Korovich notched her fifth straight double-double of and team-leading 13th overall. She finished with a season-high 19 kills and 20 digs. Sophomore Beth Greulich (12), sophomore Kayla Lefeld (11) and freshman Amy Benz (11) also reached double digit kills for the Vikings, who were playing their second straight match without standout middle hitter Jenni Ramminger who was nursing an injury.
CSU took an 8-5 lead in game one, but the Raiders stormed back to knot the game at 10-10. From there, neither team assumed a lead of more than two points until the Vikings broke a 25-25 tie by scoring five of the final six points.
WSU (8-14, 5-5 HL) appeared well on its way to tying the match at one game apiece as it raced out to a 23-14 lead in game two. However, CSU rallied all the way back to within one point (28-27) on a service ace from Liz Fazio. After a Wright State timeout, the Raiders came out and scored the final two points to knot the match at 1-1.
Game three was a classic that featured 18 ties and seven lead changes with neither side leading by more than three points. With the score tied at 27-27, the teams traded points on the next 14 serves until CSU's Jordan Bateman served two straight points to give the Vikings a 2-1 lead.
"We grinded it out in game three," Voss said. "I knew we had used all our substitutions, so we were going with the group that was on the floor. I thought we had to win the game before they rotated, but we really held it together to get the win."
CSU made things a bit easier in game four by racing out to a 10-2 lead and pushing the lead to as many as 10 points as the Raiders never threatened.
"We served well in the game four and had a lot of big runs," Voss said.
Mel Snyder finished with 40 assists and seven digs, while Bateman recorded a match-best 22 digs.
Wright State was led by Alisha Kimbro who tallied a match-best 21 kills and 20 digs.
CSU will return to action next Friday when it travels to Milwaukee for an 8:00 pm (EST) match. The two teams entered play today tied for first place in the conference, but CSU did hand Milwaukee its lone loss of the season, 3-2, on Sept. 29 in Woodling Gym.
