Sept. 5, 2008
Final Stats
Contact: Greg Murphy
DAYTON, Ohio - Kayla Lefeld had a match-best 15 kills and Amy Benz added 12, but Cleveland State dropped a five-set match to Towson in the opening match of the Dayton Flyer Invitational on Friday evening at the Frericks Center.
Game scores were 20-25, 25-23, 20-25, 26-24, 15-10.
CSU slips to 1-3 on the young season, while Towson remains undefeated at 5-0.
Beth Greulich added 10 kills for CSU, which hit .228, while Jordan Goad handed out 41 assists and chipped in four kills. Jordan Bateman finished with 15 digs, while Alexis Korovich just missed a double-double, finishing with nine kills and 10 digs.
"We didn't play poorly tonight, but we were very hesitant at times," head coach Chuck Voss said. "And that is what is concerning me now. We need to work on that and it's going to have to be in practice. We are going to have to put them in difficult positions and they need to respond."
The first set was close throughout with CSU clinging to a 21-20 lead. From there, CSU rattled off the final four points, including a pair of kills from Benz, to take the early lead.
That lead was short-lived, however, as the Tigers rallied to take set two after CSU jumped out to a 14-9 lead following a kill from Lefeld. The Vikings still maintained a six-point advantage (21-15) following a block by Lefeld, but the Tigers would not go away, concluding the set by outscoring the Vikings 10-2.
Following the intermission, CSU came out and played inspired volleyball, scoring the first three points of the set. The Vikings extended their advantage to 19-14 after a kill from Benz and this time, would not allow a Tiger comeback, using kills from Beth Greulich, Jordan Goad and Lefeld, as well as blocks by Benz and Lefeld to close out the set and take a 2-1 lead.
Towson refused to go away quietly in the fourth, tallying the first four points of the set and leading the entire set until a service ace from Alexis Korovich gave CSU a 24-23 lead. However, a kill from Maddie Hasseltine and back-to-back attack errors by the Vikings evened up the match at two sets apiece.
"We had a chance to win the match, but we gave them a free ball on match point and they were able to take advantage of it and beat us down the line," Voss said.
The Tigers rode that momentum into the fifth set, racing out to a 10-5 lead. However, the Vikings responded with a run of their own, slicing their deficit to 11-8 as Lefeld had two kills and Greulich and Benz combined for a block. But that would be as close as CSU would get as Towson closed the match by scoring four of the final six points.
Ally Perko had 13 kills for Towson, while Haseltine added 12. Katee Luecke dished out 47 assists, while Missy Rohrbaugh tied Bateman for match-high honors with 15 digs.
The Vikings will conclude play in the Dayton Invitational on Saturday (Sept. 6) with a pair of matches. CSU will play Northwestern at 1:00 p.m. and Dayton at 7:30 p.m. in the final match of the invitational.
