Sept. 24, 2010
Final Stats
By: Robert Ivory
The Cleveland State women's soccer team (5-4-2 overall; 1-0 Horizon League) defeated the Green Bay Phoenix (2-5-2 overall, 0-1 HL) 1-0 Friday night at Krenzler Field. Sylvia Olsby scored the game winner for the Vikings, Kelly Zinkiewich recorded her third shutout of the year, and the Vikings won their fifth game at home, which sets a new record.
"In first half we executed our game plan," Viking head coach Derrek Falor said. "We wanted to pull them out, we wanted to create space, and we wanted to control the ball."
Cleveland State took the ball to Green Bay, as the Phoenix looked to pack in their defense, as the team has only given up five goals in their first nine matches.
At the 32:39 mark of the first half, Sylvia Olsby netted her second goal of the year. Olsby made a nice pass to a charging Nikki Bevilacqua, Belvilacqua ripped a shot from inside the box, but it was deflected. The ball bounced right to Olsby and she put it into the bottom right hand corner of the net.
"It feels really good," Olsby said. "Nikki made a good through run, when she shot it, all the defenders crashed on her and I was able to get the deflection and poke it in."
Cleveland State was able to control the ball for most of the night, as Green Bay did not get one single shot on goal. They did get five shots, but the Vikings kept them off the ball and made them take shots from well outside the box.
"The goal was set up with a lot of combinations on the top of the box," Falor said. "I thought that every time we started making five or six passes, Green Bay would inch up and we were able to exploit the space behind."
The Vikings held possession for most of the second half as well. Although the Vikings turned the ball over and the game was "a little dicey," the team was able to turn the Green Bay threat away and complete the shutout. Zinkiewich now has three shutouts on the year and eleven clean sheets in her career. Her eleventh shutout even furthers her as the school record holder.
The win marks the first victory over Green Bay at Krenzler Field and only their second win against the Phoenix all-time (2-5-0). It also is the fifth home win for the Vikings this year, which is their highest win total at home, bettering their mark of four in 2008 (4-4-1 at home).
"I think we finally have a sense of an identity," Falor said. "We believe in it here at home, really well. Now, they are starting to believe that they can win at home if they play hard. We now know who we are and what we are going to do on the field, instead of every week saying `We'll just try'. I think that's the big difference."
The Vikings now turn around and face a tough Milwaukee team on Sunday afternoon (Sept 26) with a noon kickoff. Cleveland State is 0-10-0 all-time versus the Panthers. They finish their three game home streak Friday night (October 1) against the Youngstown State Penguins. Kick is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
