Sept. 10, 2010
Final Stats
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State volleyball team won its seventh consecutive match to open the season, equaling the best start in school history, with a 3-0 win over George Washington in the first day of the CSU Invitational Presented by the Crowne Plaza-Cleveland South.
The win improved CSU to 7-0, tying the 1977 squad for the best start in school history. GWU fell to 5-3.
Match scores were 25-21, 25-18, 25-23.
"We were excited to come back home and open the season in Woodling Gym this weekend," head coach Chuck Voss said. "I thought we came out with a lot of intensity and stayed within our system and that allowed us to be successful.
"We have such a young team and to be able to win seven straight to open the season shows just how hard this team has been working. Our ultimate goal is to win a league title and get back to the NCAA tournament and if we continue to work hard and improve each time we take the court, we have a chance to achieve that goal."
Kara Koch led the Vikings with 12 kills, while Jackie Dabbelt added 10 and Lindsey Griffith and Amy Benz eight each. Amy Grabiec made 16 digs and Jordan Goad finished with 33 assists, eight digs and seven kills.
CSU fell behind early in the first set, 8-4, but rallied to take its first lead (18-17) on a Koch kill. CSU would lead the rest of the set to take a 1-0 lead.
The Vikings stormed out to a 14-6 lead in the second set and seemed to be in control of the set, pushing the lead to 10 points (19-9) on a Goad kill. However, GWU pulled to within 20-16 until back-to-back kills from Koch and Dabbelt stretched the lead back to six points (22-16).
"We are learning to play through a little adversity and that was apparent in the second set tonight when they made their run," Voss said. "But we were able to keep our composure and not lose focus of what we were doing."
The third set was tight throughout with no team leading by more than three points. It also featured six tie scores, including the the final time at 23-23 after a kill by GWU's Jamie Washington.
Following a CSU timeout, the Vikings used a Dabbelt kill and a GWU attack error to seal the sweep.
CSU hit .298 for the match, while also recording more digs (55-40), kills (50-39), assists (45-34) and blocks (14-11).
The Vikings will conclude play in their own invitational on Saturday (Sept. 11) when CSU hosts Morgan State at 1:00 p.m. and Kent State at 7:00 p.m.
Kent State swept Morgan State in Friday's first contest.
