Sept. 14, 2008
Final Stats
Contact: Brian McCann
CLEVELAND, OHIO -- Sylvia Olsby scored her first goal of the season in the 81st minute and Kelly Zinkiewich made six saves in her recording her first shutout of the season as Cleveland State extended its school record for consecutive wins with a 1-0 win over Eastern Kentucky on Sunday afternoon at Krenzler Field.
After losing its first four matches of the year, the Vikings have stormed back to win three straight contests by a single goal each to record the first multi-match win streak in the five-year history of the program. CSU is now 3-4 while Eastern Kentucky drops to 2-3-1.
"This was a nice win for us this afternoon," CSU head coach Derrek Falor said. "We've lost so many of matches like this in the past that it is good to finally start winning our share.
"We applied some good offensive pressure, especially in the second half, and our defense really did a nice job of controlling their runs and stopping Eastern from advancing up the field. In the past when we got into a tight match like this, a defensive lapse would lead to a goal by our opponent and we would end up losing a tight decision.
"The wind really played a factor today because the team with the wind at its back had an easier time applying pressure. They had it in the first half and we had it when we scored in the second half," Falor added.
Playing with a strong wind out of the southeast, the Vikings struggled to put offensive opportunities together in the first half when they played toward the southern goal at Krenzler Field.
Eastern Kentucky had a 7-3 edge in shots in the opening stanza with Zinkiewich making three first half saves to keep the Colonels off the scoreboard.
The momentum of the match changed when teams exchanged fields at the intermission as CSU out-shot EKU, 10-4 in the second half to hold a 13-11 edge for the contest. EKU netminder Stephanie Lynch proved to be a difficult player to beat as she made eight saves in the contest, six coming in the second half.
The Vikings finally got on the scoreboard at the 80:47 mark when CSU made a defensive stop near midfield and quickly headed the other way in transition. Natalie Daniels fed a pass down the left wing that Jennifer Wieand ran onto, beat one defender and carried a little further before sending a cross to the far side of the goal about 10 yards out. Olsby got a leg on the ball to stop it, played it just to the right to elude a defender and blasted a shot into the right corner of the goal.
"That was a nice play," Falor said. "Jenni did a nice job of creating the opportunity and sucking the defense towards her. Just when they converged, she was able to get a nice cross off that Sylvia found. It was picture perfect."
Olsby's goal, the first this season and fourth of her career, moved her into fifth place on the career scoring chart.
The win continued a dramatic turnaround for CSU. After being out-scored 11-3 in losing the first four matches of the year, the Vikings have bounced back to score five times in the last three contests while limiting opponents to just a pair of goals to win all three times.
CSU will remain at home this weekend when the Vikings host IPFW on Friday, Sept, 19 beginning at 7:00 p.m. at Krenzler Field.
