Final Stats
Contact: Renee Adam
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VALPARAISO, Ind. - Behind a career-high tying 16 kills from Kerry Winchester and a season-best 71 kills as a team, the Cleveland State volleyball team earned a five-set victory at Valparaiso Friday evening. The win improves the Vikings to 12-6 overall and 4-1 in Horizon League play, while the Crusaders fall to 10-9 (2-2).
"I thought we did just enough to win tonight, at times we played extremely well, but at other times we were very tentative and gave up too many errors," head coach Chuck Voss said. "Dayna did a great job of getting the ball to people tonight and really spreading our offense out. Kerry had a great match for us and was a very important part of our offense tonight. Once again we had a strong defensive effort, which has been our staple this season, it is something that we can control and it really allows us to run our offense at the highest level."
Set scores against the Crusaders were 25-17, 25-19, 21-25, 22-25, 15-10.
Along with Winchester, Marie Frease and Kara Koch also tallied double-digit kills for the Vikings, Koch with 23 and Frease with 15.Dayna Roberts captained the Viking offense, recording a career-high 61 assists on the night. Koch and Amanda Medvetz each notched their fourth 20-dig matches of the season against the Crusaders, Koch with 20 digs and Medvetz with a team-high 28.Nikki Holmes also posted a career-best 18 digs, while Maggie Hannon tallied a career-high eight blocks, including one solo block.
The Vikings were in control throughout the entire first set, jumping out to an 11-3 lead forcing Valparaiso to take both timeouts early in the frame. The Crusaders were able to come within four points twice during the rest of the frame, but that would be as close as they could get as Cleveland State pulled out the 25-17 victory. The Vikings had six kills from Koch and Winchester during the opening set, along with seven digs from Medvetz and five from Holmes.
The second set was much closer, as the Crusaders and Vikings battled back and forth throughout the first part of the frame. Neither team held more than a two-point lead until the 19-16 mark when Cleveland State gained a three-point advantage on a Frease kill. The Vikings earned six out of the next nine points, including three-straight to end the set on kills from Koch and Jackie Dabbelt.
After dropping the third and fourth sets, the Vikings came out strong during the final frame, earning the 15-10 victory. CSU held the advantage during the entire set, and distanced themselves with a Winchester kill at the 10-6 mark. The Vikings closed the frame with two straight points on a Koch kill and a Crusader error.
The Vikings will continue their roadswing tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 6), facing Wright State at 7:00 p.m. Links for live stats and live video are available via the volleyball schedule page on CSUVikings.com.
