Sept. 10, 2011

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

Follow the Vikings on TWITTER
Follow Volleyball on TWITTER
CSU Athletics on YouTube
Become a Fan on Facebook

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State dropped a 3-1 decision to IPFW in the second day of the CSU Invitational Presented by the Courtyard Marriott Independence on Saturday afternoon in Woodling Gym.

The loss drops the Vikings to 6-4 this year, while IPFW improved to 4-4.

Match scores were 25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22.

Duquesne earned a 3-0 sweep of DePaul in Saturday's first contest.

The Vikings fell behind quickly in set one as the Mastadons scored the first six points.

"Give credit to IPFW," head coach Chuck Voss said. "They played well and took us out of our game today. We made some mistakes and they made them pay. We've got to fix some things for tonight."

CSU did manage to battle back and tie the first set at 18-18, but the Mastadons closed things out with a 7-3 run.

Set two was the closest of the four, featuring 12 ties and six lead changes. The Vikings took their biggest lead at 18-14 on a kill by Jordan Goad, but four straight IPFW points tied things at 18-18. The teams continued to trade points from there until a IPFW attack error and Goad service ace tied the match at 1-1.

The Mastadons once again started quickly in the third set, racing out to an 8-2 lead. CSU managed to battle back within two points (17-15), but IPFW scored the next three points to take a 20-15 lead and eventually closed out the set.

IPFW sprinted out to a quick 6-2 lead in the fourth set, but this time, the Vikings battled back quickly, using an 8-2 run of their own to assume a 10-8 advantage. Things remained tight from there as neither team led by more than two points until a kill by Megan Steenhuysen gave IPFW a 22-19 lead. A CSU attack error followed to make it 23-19 and after three straight Viking points, IPFW ended things with kills by Emily Spence and Alli Hook.

Koch led the Vikings with 18 kills and seven digs, while Marie Frease had nine kills and Megan Barhorst added seven. Goad handed out 29 assists with nine digs and Amy Grabiec made 18 digs.

CSU concludes play in its own tournament with a 7:00 p.m. match against Duquesne on Saturday night. IPFW will play DePaul at 4:30 p.m.