BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Cleveland State volleyball team opened up the 2026 season Friday, splitting its matches against Morgan State and Lehigh.
The Vikings will close out play at the Lehigh Invitational tomorrow, facing Gardner-Webb at 12:00 p.m.
In the first match of the day, the Vikings picked up a 3-0 sweep over Morgan State, paced by 12 kills each from
Bryn VanVleet and
Addison Koppelman.
In addition,
Jazen DeBina added eight kills and
JeriLynn Koehler and
Julia Jozefov notched four.
Fiona Cooper captained the offense with 29 assists on the day, while the Vikings hit .293 on the match.
Defensively,
Vayda Delventhal posted 10 digs, while Koehler combined for two blocks.
During the opening set the Vikings were able to post four straight points midway through, as a pair of DeBina service aces gave Cleveland State a 17-11 advantage. CSU added on to its lead with back-to-back kills from Jozefov to put the score at 19-13, while a VanVleet kill gave the Vikings set-point at 24-19.
Koehler then closed out the frame for the Vikings with a kill, giving CSU the 25-19 first set victory.
The second set was much of the same, as the Vikings were able to gain a sizeable lead midway through the frame, with a Koppelman kill putting the Vikings up 15-10. A string of three straight points then gave the Vikings a 22-18 lead late in the frame, before VanVleet closed the 25-21 set victory with a kill.
The Vikings carried their momentum into the third set, as back-to-back kills from Debina and Koppelman gave CSU a 20-13 lead late in the frame. Cleveland State then closed the frame with three straight points, as a trio of kills from VanVleet and DeBina closed out the 25-16 frame.
Cleveland State's second match of the day was against the host Lehigh, falling to the Mountain Hawks, 3-0.
Against Lehigh, VanVleet led the Viking offense with 12 kills, while Koppelman added nine.
Allison Salazar finished with 32 assists on the night, while Delventhal tallied 11 digs for her second straight double-digit dig match.
