*Photo courtesy of Luke Eiles

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Cleveland State volleyball team picked up its first win of the 2025 campaign Sunday, earning a 3-1 victory over Duke to close out play at the Wolfpack Invitational hosted by NC State.

Sunday's victory marked the first win over Duke in program history.

Laken Voss paced the Viking offense with 19 kills on the match, while Bryn VanVleet added 13 and JeriLynn Koehler chipped in eight. Isabella Gibbons tallied 40 assists against Duke along with nine digs, two kills and two blocks.

Voss recorded her first double-double of the season after adding 14 digs on the day, while Vayda Delventhal recorded 20 digs to lead the Viking defense. In addition, Reilly Wadden added 14 digs.

As a team, the Vikings recorded 12.0 total blocks on the match, including six from Koehler and five from Matilda Dahlstrom and Julia Jozefov.

After dropping the first set, the Vikings rebounded for a 25-21 victory during set two to even the match at 1-1.

Cleveland State continued its momentum into the third set then, as a 4-0 run midway through the frame put the Vikings up 19-15 following a pair of blocks from Gibbons and Jozefov along with a Gibbons kill and Voss service ace. Although Duke was able to close the gap to just one point a few plays later, the Vikings tallied back-to-back points on a Duke error and VanVleet kill to regain a 22-19 edge, before clinching the 25-22 set victory on a Voss kill.

During the fourth set, the Vikings were once again able to gain a sizeable advantage midway through the frame, as a Dahlstrom kill put Cleveland State up 15-9. The Vikings were able to hold this lead throughout the rest of the set then, gaining set-point on a VanVleet kill, before finally closing out the frame on another Voss kill to earn their first victory of the 2025 campaign.

The Vikings will now close out non-league play with a pair of matches next week, hosting Kent State on Thursday, September 18 before traveling to Akron on Friday, September 19.