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The Viking Report (Oct. 22)
Oct. 22, 2007 Contact: Brian McCann
Complete Release in PDF Format
Championship Season Begins. . . Eight Viking teams will be in action this week, including four winter sports, but the focus will be on the start of championship season for the fall sports as the cross country team and the other three fall sports get closer to the end of their league schedules. Fresh off their strongest team effort in over five seasons, the Vikings will run in the Horizon League Championships on Saturday, Oct. 27 beginning at 11:00 a.m. in Valparaiso, Ind. The women's soccer team is at Krenzler Field for their final two regular season matches, hosting Detroit on Friday (Oct. 26) at 5:00 p.m. and Butler on Sunday (Oct. 28) at 12:00 noon. The Butler contest will serve as Senior Day with Viking seniors Shayna Back, Samantha Casey, Heather Clapacs and Amber Rasmussen being honored in a pre-match ceremony. The men's soccer team will also be at home on Friday (Oct. 26) when the Vikings host Detroit starting at 7:30 p.m. at Krenzler Field. CSU then travels to Durham, NC for a Sunday (Oct. 28) match at No. 15 Duke. The volleyball team, which is in second place in the Horizon League, one-game behind Milwaukee with four matches to go, will play at Loyola on Friday (Oct. 26) and UIC on Saturday (Oct. 27) as part of CSU's final regular season road trip. The men's and women's swimming teams will be at home for the second time this year, hosting Green Bay on Saturday (Oct. 27) beginning at 12:00 noon at Busbey Natatorium. The men's and women's fencing teams will open their respective seasons on Saturday (Oct. 27) at the Ohio State Invitational, squaring off with teams from Bowling Green, Chicago State, Detroit, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue and Xavier. Volleyball Makes Final Regular Season Road Trip. . . Cleveland State (17-6, 10-2 HL) sits alone in second place in the Horizon League with three weeks to play in the regular season as the Vikings prepare to make their final road trip of the regular season this weekend. CSU will travel to Chicago to face Loyola on Friday (Oct. 26) at 8:00 pm EDT and UIC on Saturday (Oct. 27) at 5:00 pm EDT. "This will be another challenging weekend for us," head coach Chuck Voss said. "We will be playing two tough teams in two very difficult environments and I am looking forward to see how we respond. We need to be focused and play with a lot of energy." The Vikings split a pair of matches over the weekend in Wisconsin as Milwaukee snapped CSU's nine-match win streak with a 3-2 win on Friday (Oct. 19). It was the first time the Vikings lost a match since falling in five sets at Wright State on Sept. 14. Game give featured four lead changes and six ties early on, with the final one coming at 7-7. From there, the Panthers scored four straight points to open up an 11-7 advantage and pushed the lead to 14-10. However, the Vikings made one final push with three straight points before a Panther kill ended the match. Amy Benz finished with a career-best 20 kills, while Alexis Korovich and Mel Snyder tallied double-doubles. CSU rebounded to defeat Green Bay in four sets on Saturday (Oct. 20) as Beth Greulich registered a career-high 21 kills and hit .514 with just two errors in 37 attempts. After dropping game one, 31-29, the Vikings regrouped to win the next three, 30-27, 30-18, 30-23. CSU hit .519 as a team in game three, while limiting the Phoenix to a .026 hitting percentage. Korovich notched her seventh consecutive double-double, while Snyder added her second straight. Jordan Bateman notched 25 digs, her 15th match of the season with at least 20 digs, to run her total to 466 digs this season and break her own single season school-record of 457 set last season. Men's Soccer Hosts Detroit, Travels To No. 15 Duke. . . After another pair of one-goal losses last week, the men's soccer team returns home for the final time this season when the Vikings (3-10-2, 0-4-1) host Detroit on Friday (Oct 26) at 7:30 p.m. at Krenzler Field. CSU then closes the week by traveling to Durham N.C. to take on 15th-ranked Duke on Sunday (Oct. 28) at 6 p.m. "We are getting our opportunities to score," head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "The bad part is that when we do get a lead, we give up goals at the wrong time of the match" Last week, the Vikings gave up second half goals against both Butler and Wright State in both matches to lose both contests 2-1. On Friday (Oct. 19) Butler's Frank Patano scored off a one timer to put the Bulldogs up for good in the 59th minute. Tom Sadd scored the Vikings lone goal of the match. On Sunday (Oct 21), Wright State scored in the 77th minute to also down CSU, 2-1. Eric Tattersall scored for the Vikings. "We're looking forward to the challenge of traveling to Duke," Kazemaini said. "It will be a good opportunity for the players to play in that kind of atmosphere." Women's Soccer Close Regular Season By Hosting Detroit & Butler. . . The women's soccer team will close the regular season at home this week when the Vikings host a pair of Horizon League matches. CSU squares off with Detroit on Friday, Oct. 26 beginning at 5:00 p.m. at Krenzler Field and then finishes the league slate at home on Sunday (Oct. 28) against Butler at 12:00 noon. The Butler match will serve as Senior Day with Viking seniors Shayna Back, Samantha Casey, Heather Clapacs and Amber Rasmussen being honored in a pre-match ceremony. The quartet, along with redshirt juniors Abbie Kakias, Maggie Pugliese and Jennifer Wieand, were each part of the program's inaugural recruiting class in 2004. "This is an important week for us," head coach Derrek Falor said. "From a competitive perspective, we need to play well to avoid playing in the opening round match of the league tournament. From a team perspective, it will be hard to say goodbye to our first true senior class because what each of these young ladies has meant to this program. That first recruiting class has made a lot of sacrifices and endured an awful lot of tough times in order to help this program grow. Our improvement over the years is because of them." The Vikings enter the final week of the regular season with a 1-5 league record and need to win one match and tie the other in order to move past Green Bay (2-6) and into seventh place, thereby avoiding the first round league match. Anything less than that, along with a Youngstown State loss, and the Vikings will host the Penguins on Tuesday, Oct. 30 for the first round match. Men's Swimming Hosts Green Bay. . . After a week off from competition, the men'swimming team returns to action this week against Green Bay on Saturday beginning at 12:00 noon at Busbey Natatorium. "We feel good about our chances this week," head coach Wally Morton said. "We will continue to prepare and practice hard." The Vikings opened their season on Oct. 13 by routing Valparaiso, 174-52. Dave Duecker led the men's effort by winning three events, the 200 yard butterfly (1:59.14), 500 yard freestyle (4:51.42), and the 1000 yard freestyle (9:55.46). 2007 NCAA qualifier Jacub Dobies won both the 200 yard IM (1:58.95) and the 100 yard freestyle (46.39) while Dan Baiko won the one and three meter diving events. "The team had a good week off and a good week of practice," Morton said. "Green Bay wont be an easy meet, but if we continue to work we will be fine." Green Bay Next For Women's Swimming . . . The early season swim schedule continue this week for the women when they host Green Bay on Saturday, Oct. 27 beginning at 12:00 noon at Busbey Natatorium. The Vikings are coming off a 115-84 loss at St Francis on Saturday (Oct. 20). "Even though we lost overall, I am pleased with how the women swam," head coach Wally Morton said. "Frances Carrion swam her personal best in the 500 free and Jen MacLauchlan had a good meet also." Frances Carrion took first place in the 500 free (5:26.07), second in the 100 free (11:07.53), and helped the 200 yard freestyle relay team capture first place (1:45.29). Maclauchlan captured first place in the 100 yard backstroke (1:01.18), while Kristine Bunker took second in the 100 yard butterfly (1:01.94). "We are looking forward to the challenge of swimming against the defending conference champs (Green Bay)", Morton said. "It will be a good challenge to see where we are at." Men's Golf Ends Fall Slate With Second Place Finish. . . The CSU linksters wrapped up its fall season last week by tying for second place at the Belmont Fall Shootout, which was played on Oct. 15-16 at the par-72, 7,043-yard Nashville Golf & Athletic Club. CSU was 10 shots behind Akron in the team race. Sophomore Kyle Cobb and junior Jake Scott paced the Vikings with top-15 finishes. Cobb fired rounds of 71-70-77 (218) to tie for ninth, while Scott carded three consecutive 73's (219) and tied for 13th at 219. Cobb had a string of five consecutive rounds under par snapped with his final round 77. "Earning a second place finish in our last fall event was a great accomplishment," head coach Steve Weir said. "We had really been struggling in the final round of tournaments this season, but we really battled back. We'll take a few weeks off and get back to work and prepare for the spring season with what we need to work on." Women's Golf Finishes 10th To Wrap Up Fall Schedule. . . The women's golf team concluded its fall season by placing 10th at the IPFW Fall Classic contested on Oct. 15-16 at the par-72, 5,995-yard Deer Track Golf Couse. The Vikings opened the tournament by totaling a school-record low 318, but couldn't sustain the momentum as it carded a 331 in the final round. Junior Mallory Wyderka and sophomore Katie Broere were CSU's top finishers as they tied for 25th place at 159. Wyderka fired an opening round 74, which tied the school-record for low round, but shot an 84 in the final round, while Broere shot 76-83 to match Wyderka. "We got off to a great start at IPFW, but struggled with the conditions in the final round," head coach Steve Weir said. "The fall season gave us a chance to see where we stand as a team and what we need to work on to get better." Tennis Fall Slate Complete. . . The men's and women's tennis teams will both be idle from competition until early January after each finished their fall schedules by competing last week at their respective ITA Regional Tournaments. At the men's regional in Minneapolis, Minn., sophomore Phil Orno became the first player in school history to receive a berth in the main draw of the tourney, but dropped both matches. Senior Rob West and sophomore Ryan Hamning each lost their first round match to be eliminated from the qualifying draw with Hamning coming back later in the day to claim a consolation match over Xavier's Chris Herlinger, 6-4, 6-0. The results were the same at the women's regional in Ann Arbor, Mich. as freshman Jackie Tabb and Melissa Holzinger each dropped their first round matches in straight sets to be eliminated from the qualifying draw. Both came back later in the day to play a consolation match with each falling in three sets. "This was a good experience for teams," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "We sent two freshman, two sophomores and a senior to play in the regionals for the first time so you couldn't really expect a lot from them, especially considering the talent level that they saw in the brackets. Now that they have experienced it, we can build on our expectations next year. "We had a pretty good fall. Both teams faced some pretty good competition in the tournaments that they played in and that should help us out once we start to play dual matches in January. It should be another good spring for both teams." Cross Country Heads To Horizon League Championships. . . After a weekend off, the Vikings are back in action on Saturday (Oct. 27) when they travel to Valparaiso, Ind., for the Horizon League Championships. The race is scheduled to begin at 11:00 am at Sunset Hills Park. "We are coming off one of our best races of the season two weeks ago and the team has been running hard all year," head coach Joe Jaketic said. "This is our most important meet of the season and we want to improve upon our finish from last season." Freshman Allison Craine has been CSU's top finisher in all seven races this season. On Sept. 7, she placed 19th overall and was the top freshman finisher among the five league schools at the Crusader Invitational. That event was run on the same course CSU will compete on this weekend. Two weeks ago, the Vikings placed 11th of 18 teams at the Falcon Invitational and bested the other two league teams that competed in the event, Wright State and Detroit. It was the first time CSU had finished ahead of two league schools under Jaketic. Fencing Opens Season At Ohio State Invitational. . . The men's and women's fencing teams kick off the 2007-08 season at the 10-team Ohio State Invitational on Saturday (Oct. 27). The event is slated to begin at 8:00 am. "This is a good way for us to kick off the season," head coach Jim Sager said. "It's a big event that is going to run all day and will give us a chance to see where we stand as a team. We return a majority of the starters for both teams and I am looking for good things this season. We have been working out hard and the teams are in great condition." Sophomore Liran Gross (foil) returns to anchor the men's squad after earning second team all-region accolades last season. In addition, Sager has liked what he has seen from junior Andy Snell (epee) and sophomore Steve Montgomery (foil) in practice. Freshman John Marshall was one of Sager's top recruits and will compete with the foil. On the women's side, sophomore Brooke Snyder and junior Courtney Zemkosky, who both compete with the foil, will lead the squad. "Brook and Courtney have really developed from last season and I expect some good things from them," Sager said. Viking High Fives Jordan Bateman: The volleyball junior has tallied 466 digs this season to break her own single season school-record of 457 set last season. Is threatening the league record of 579 digs by Stacy Gilligan in 1992. Amy Benz: The volleyball freshman produced a career-best 20 kills, eight more than her previous career-high, against Milwaukee on Friday night. Mallory Wyderka: The women's golf junior tied the school-record for low round with a 74 in the opening round of the IPFW Fall Classic on Oct. 15. Kevin Hesser: The first-year CSU marketing coordinator did a great job leading the Mid-Vike Madness committee, resulting in an outstanding event on Oct. 12 that was attended by over 2,000 CSU fans. The Schedule Ahead For The Vikings Oct. 26 (Friday) Volleyball at Loyola Men's Soccer hosts Detroit Oct. 27 (Saturday) Men's Swimming hosts Green Bay Women's Swimming hosts Green Bay Volleyball at UIC Fencing at Ohio State Invitational Oct. 28 (Sunday) Men's Soccer at Duke |
