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The Viking Report (March 3)...
March 3, 2009
Contact: Brian McCann
Complete Release in PDF Format
Championship Season Heats Up For CSU. . . The winter championship season hits full stride this week when both the men's basketball and wrestling teams enter post-season play. The men's basketball squad will host Detroit on Tuesday (March 3) at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center in a first round Horizon League Championship match-up. A victory would send CSU to the second round in Indianapolis, where it would face the winner of the UIC at Youngstown State game on Friday (March 6) at 8:00 p.m. A win on Friday would advance CSU to the semi-finals and a meeting with Green Bay on Saturday (March 7) at 9:00 p.m. The women's basketball team closes the regular season with an eye on finishing in second place in the league standigns. CSU will host Valparaiso on Thursday (March 5) at 7:00 p.m. and Butler on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. CSU enters the final week with an 18-10 overall and 12-4 league mark, tied with Butler for second place. The wrestling team will be in Lock Haven PA on Saturday for the annual Eastern Wrestling League Tournament. Play begins at 10:00 a.m. with NCAA Championship berths on the line for the top three finishers in each weight class. The baseball team will travel to Dayton to play three games against the Dayton Flyers this weekend. The will play at 3:00 p.m. on Friday (March 6) and 1:00 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday (March 7-8). After being rained out last week, the softball team will try to play its final tourney of the regular season, traveling to Stillwater, OK for the Mizuno Classic. CSU will play Northern Colorado, Arkansas, host Oklahoma State and two games against Drake from Friday-Sunday, March 6-8. The women's tennis team will host three contests this week, facing IPFW on Friday (March 6) at 7:00 p.m., and then squaring off with Oakland (10:00 a.m.) and Dayton (2:00 p.m.) on Sunday (March 8). The men will play just once this week, facing IPFW on Friday (March 6) at 7:00 p.m. All four tennis matches will be played at the River Oaks Racquet Club. The fencing teams will be in Columbus on Saturday (March 7) for the season-ending NCAA Midwest Regional. Men's Basketball Face Detroit In Horizon League Championship . . . Tournament time has arrived for the men's basketball team and the Vikings will host Detroit on Tuesday, March 3 beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center in the first of what could be four games in eight days for CSU. A victory would send the Vikings to Indianapolis for a second round game on Friday (March 6) at 8:00 p.m. vs. the winner of the UIC at Youngstown State first round game. A win in that contest would send CSU into the semi-finals, where it would face Green Bay on Saturday (March 7) at 9:00 p.m. The Vikings enter post-season with a 21-10 record, marking the seventh time in school history that CSU has won 20 or more games and the first in back-to-back seasons since accomplishing it in four straight years in the mid-80's. "This is what we played all year for and I think we are ready," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "It may be difficult to win four games, but our guys know what they need to do to win and they will take them one game at a time. It is crucial that we continue to do the things that we do and finish each game strong." Horizon League awards were presented on Monday (March 2) and CSU seniors J'Nathan Bullock and Cedric Jackson were recognized. Bullock was named to the first team for the second straight year after leading the team in scoring (15.6 ppg) and rebounding (6.8). Jackson was a repeat member on the all-league second team while also being tabbed as the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year. He averaged 9.9 points and 5.5 rebounds, leading the league in steals (93) and assists (169), ranking fifth and 26th nationally in those categories. Women's Basketball Host Valparaiso & Butler . . . Cleveland State, which has won a season-high five straight games and 11 of its last 13, returns home to host its final two regular season games of the season this week, beginning with a 7:00 p.m. contest against Valparaiso. The Vikings will also host Butler on Saturday, March 7, at 3:00 p.m. in a game that could have major implications on the final regular season standings. CSU is tied with Butler for second place in the Horizon League at 12-4 and has already clinched a home quarterfinal game in the 2009 Speedway Horizon League Championship, which will be played on March 11 at 7:00 p.m. against an opponent to be determined. "Needless to say, this is another huge weekend for us because we have a chance to finish in second place in the regular season standings," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "We have been playing some of our best basketball of the season over the last month or so and we need to keep playing with that urgency and intensity. I feel that our experience from last season has helped us grow this year and I think the team is much more mature and knows how to remain calm in pressure situations." The Vikings improved to 18-10 by sweeping a pair of games in Chicago, CSU's first sweep in the Windy City since 2004. The Vikings started the trip with an 83-73 triumph at UIC, using the second best shooting performance in school history (.583). Dominique Butler then scored 23 points to help the Vikings rally past Loyola, 67-62, on Saturday. CSU's 18 wins are the third most in school history as the Vikings chase just their second 20-win season in school history. In addition, their 12 Horizon League wins are a program record, shattering last season's old mark of 10. Softball Continues At Oklahoma State's Mizuno Classic. . . The Viking softball team hits the road to play in its final regular season tournament, traveling to Stillwater, OK to take part in the Mizuno Classic at Oklahoma State University. The tourney will run from Friday-Sunday, March 6-8 with CSU playing five games. On Friday (March 6), the Vikings will take on Northern Colorado at 1:30 p.m. and host Okalhoma State at 7:00 p.m. The Saturday (March 7) schedule has CSU facing Arkansas at 10:00 a.m. and Drake at 12:00 noon. The tourney concludes on Sunday with CSU playing Drake a second time starting at 9:00 a.m. "It will be good to get back on the field this week and we will need to really have things together because we will easily be facing the toughest schedule of the year," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "We had some momentum coming out of the Georgia tourney and I hope we can keep it going, even though we didn't play last week." The Vikings (4-5) are coming off an unexpected off weekend after CSU had its four games at the EKU Invitational cancelled because of bad weather. CSU last played on Feb. 13-15 when the Vikings won three of four games at Georgia's Red & Black Showcase. Good news came CSU's way this past week when junior Lia Gordon was named the Horizon League Player of the Week for the period covering the first three weeks of the season. Gordon, who hit just .137 last year, came alive at the plate, hitting .417 (10-24) with three homeruns, nine RBI and nine runs scored. She has walked a team-high eight times this season, owning a .576 on-base percentage and a .792 slugging percentage. Baseball To Play Three Games At Dayton. . . Cleveland State (1-5) continues its early season slate when the Vikings travel to Dayton for a three-game series this weekend. The first game of the series will be played on Friday, March 6, at 2:00 p.m. and will be followed by a 1:00 p.m. contest on Saturday, March 7, and a 12:00 p.m. game on Sunday, March 7. "We are still working out some early season kinks and tinkering with different lineups to see which one gives us the best chance to win," head coach Kevin Kocks said. "We have been able to play six or seven good innings, but have fallen apart in the late innings because of our inexperience. We need to grow up in a hurry and start executing our system." The Vikings went 0-2 at the Austin Peay Invitational last weekend, falling to the host Governors, 6-0, on Friday (Feb. 27) and to Indiana, 9-1, on Sunday (March 1). CSU's game with Ball State was cancelled on Saturday (Feb. 28) due to inclement weather. Both games were close until the late innings, as APSU used a five-run seventh inning to break open a 1-0 lead, while Indiana scored seven runs over the seventh and eighth innings to open up a 2-1 lead. CSU had trouble getting its offense on track all weekend, totaling just seven hits in the two games with Ryan Franks recording two of them. EWL Tournament Next Up For Wrestling. . . Cleveland State will wrap up the regular season when they travel to Lock Haven, PA to compete in the year-end EWL Tournament on Saturday, March 6. The Vikings are coming off a tough 41-0 loss to conference opponent West Virginia on Friday, Feb. 20. Seniors, Rashard Goff (HWT), Antonio Nicholson (149), JT Miller (184) and Nate Kmetz (174) will all be in the Viking line-up this weekend competing in perhaps their final collegiate tournament. Goff, who has accumulated 99 career wins, needs a fourth place finish or better in order to qualify for his fourth straight NCAA tournament appearance. Jordan Keller, who has won 22 matches, Rob Michaels, a 16-match winner, and Antonio Nicholson, who had a career high 17 wins this season, all need a third place finish or higher to qualify for the NCAA tournament. "The last few duals have been tough for the team, but we have regrouped both physically and mentally and are ready to compete," head coach Ben Stehura said. Men's Swimming Finishes Fourth At Horizon League Championships. . . The Cleveland State men's swimming and diving teams battled for four days at the 2009 Horizon League Conference Championships last week. In the hunt until final day, the men finished with 612 points and a fourth-place finish. UIC won the event with 703 points. Several Viking men had impressive performances, including Jakub Dobies and Mark deSwardt. DeSwardt won all three of his individual events and unanimously swept the post-season honors for Swimmer of the Championship Meet, Athlete of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. It was the first time any Horizon League athlete has won all three awards. Dobies' was as impressive in the breaststroke, securing an NCAA "B" cut swim in the 100 breast that will guarantee him a third trip to the NCAA Championships. With his win in the 100 breast, Dobies also became just the sixth Viking to win the same event three times. "Without question, our performance of the meet came from Jakub Dobies," head coach Wally Morton said. "He will go to NCAA Championships with the intent to make the final eight and win the 100 breast. His school record time of 52.94 was by far the performance of the meet. For Mark, he had the greatest distance swim in the history of the Horizon League with his mile swim. It was just phenomenal." On the week, CSU set 10 school records including Dobies in the 100 free (44.53) and 100 breast (52.94); deSwardt in the 1,000 free (9:01.46) and 1,650 free (15:02.06); and Stephen Grove in the 50 free (20.09) and 100 fly (48.60). Four relay teams also set new records including the 200 free relay (1:19.50) of Dobies, Grove, Keith Everhart and Mike Marsico; the 400 free relay (3:00.45) of Dobies, Grove, Nedim Nisic and Marsico; the 200 medley relay (1:27.58) of Todd Winchell, Dobies, Grove and Marisco; and the 400 medley relay (3:16.72) of Winchell, Dobies, Grove and Marsico. In a late addition to the schedule, the Vikings will participate in the Ohio State University Last Chance meet on March 8, giving its top swimmers a final chance to qualify for the upcoming NCAA Championships. The men's NCAA Championships run March 26-28 at Texas A&M. Women's Swimming Finishes Sixth At Horizon League Championships. . . The Cleveland State women's swimming and diving team went into the 2009 Horizon League Championships with a goal of moving up in the standings and advancing more athletes to the finals than they'd done in previous seasons. They did just that last weekend, finishing in sixth place with their highest point total since 2006 (290). Green Bay won the event with 859 points As a group, the women tallied eight top-8 individual performances. Behn set three school records en route to runner-up finishes in the 100 and 200 free (Horizon League record) and a third place time (500 free). Whitney Hickey picked up one seventh-place with a school record in the 100 fly and had two eighth-place finishes (100 back, 200 fly) in her first season. Maria Culjak (200 back) and Heather Dietz (1-meter diving) also recorded Top-8 finishes for the Vikings. "We set a number of school records and moved up in the rankings, just missing fifth-place by 10 points," head coach Wally Morton said. "This year we had the most athletes we've advanced to the finals in many years, so we're showing the improvement we expected to see. I thought overall we had a great meet, especially from our seniors. With Carys Behn and Whitney Hickey, we've also got some great pieces to build around in the future." During the four-day event, Cleveland State swimmers set nine records including Behn's marks in the 50 free (23.66), 100 free (51.26), 200 free (1:50.22) and 500 free (4:55.35) and Hickey's 100 fly (57.03). Four relay marks were also set. Men's Tennis To Host IPFW. . . The men's tennis team will slow the spring schedule down a bit, playing just a 7:00 p.m. match on Friday (March 6) against IPFW at the River Oaks Racquet Club. The Vikings swept a pair of matches last week to improve to 8-3 this year. CSU blanked Dayton, 7-0, on Saturday (Feb. 28) and then came back to rout Youngstown State, 6-1. "We had everybody at the top of their game last week," CSU head coach Brian Etzkin said. "It is always good to come out strong and win our first league match of the year like we did against Youngstown State. It is a good sign for a strong spring." Phil Orno won a pair of matches to improve to 9-1 this year at No. 1 singles while freshman Yannick Goosens improved to 7-1 at No. 3 singles. On the doubles front, the team of Ryan Hamining and Orno are 10-0 at No. 1. Women's Tennis To Play Three At Home. . . Cleveland State remains at home this week for three matches at River Oaks Racquet Club, beginning with a 7:00 p.m. contest against IPFW on Friday, March. 6. The Vikings will also host Oakland at 9:00 a.m. and Dayton at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday (March 8). "Although we are not in mid-season form like many teams are, we have good energy amongst the team and we are practicing better than ever," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "That will translate into succeess as the season wears on. Hopefully we will be able to get back on the winning track this weekend and start to see some positive things in the near future." CSU fell to 5-5 overall with a 7-0 setback at Toldeo on Saturday, Feb. 28, in the Vikings lone contest of last week. Myra Pepino and Sanda Bjelan combined to earn CSU's only win of the day with an 8-7 (5) triumph at No. 3 singles. However, the Rockets won the other two doubles matches to take the doubles point. Jackie Tabb was the lone CSU player to take her singles match to three sets, falling at the No. 4 position. Catrine Bjerrehus leads the team with 12 victories, while Pepino (11) and Bjelan (10) have each tallied double figure wins. Men's Golf Idle For Two More Weeks. . . The Cleveland State men's golf team opened the 2009 spring season by placing seventh of 16 teams at the Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate on Feb. 23-24. The 54-hole event was contested at the 6,850-yard, par-72 Wexford Plantation. "Overall, I am pleased with how we played in our first spring tournament," head coach Steve Weir said. "We hadn't been outside in a few months, but our swings were good and the short games were OK. The thing that I was most pleased with is that we made very few mental mistakes." Patrick Elber paced the Vikings with a ninth place showing, shooting rounds of 74-77-76 (227). Jake Scott (79-78-75) and Kyle Cobb (74-81-77) tied for 23rd place at 232. The Vikings will be out of action until CSU competes at the Desert Shootout in Phoenix, Ariz., from March 19-21. Viking High Fives Mark deSwardt: The freshman swimmer became the first swimmer in league history to sweep the Horizon League post-season honors (Athlete of the Meet, Athlete of the Year, Newcomer of the Year), winning all three of his individual events. Stephaine Crosley: The women's basketball junior grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds - more than half of CSU's total of 31 - at UIC on Thursday night. Josh Hungerman: The baseball senior was named the Horizon League Hitter of the Week (Feb. 24) after batting .368 with three homers and nine RBI in a four-game series at Georgia State. Jakub Dobies: The Viking junior swimmer set two school records and won his third straight 100 breast title, qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the 100 Breast for the third straight year. Cedric Jackson: The men's basketball senior went over the 1,000-point mark for his career last week. Known more for his defense than scoring, his 93 steals this year is the most of any player in the country.
The Schedule Ahead For The Vikings March 3 (Tuesday) March 5 (Thursday) March 6 (Friday) Baseball at Dayton Men's Tennis hosts IPFW Women's Tennis hosts IPFW Softball at Oklahoma State Men's Basketball vs. UIC or Youngstown State March 7 (Saturday) Wrestling at EWL Championships Softball vs Drake Baseball at Dayton Women's Basketball hosts Butler Men's Basketball vs. Green Bay Fencing at NCAA Midwest Regional March 8 (Sunday) Women's Tennis hosts Oakland Baseball at Dayton Women's Tennis hosts Dayton
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