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The Viking Report (Nov. 11)
Nov. 11, 2008
Contact: Brian McCann
Complete Release in PDF Format
Basketball Season Is Upon Us. . . With two more fall sports closing their regular seasons this week, the winter sports begin to take over as both the men's and women's basketball teams will open their respective seasons over the weekend. The men's basketball team, which is favored to win the Horizon League Championship this year, will open its schedule by hosting Oakland on Saturday, Nov. 15 beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. The women's basketball team will be in the desert southwest, opening the season at No. 17 Arizona State in a first round game in the Women's NIT. The contest will be played on Friday, Nov. 14 beginning at 8:00 p.m. The swimming teams will be the busiest this week, hosting Notre Dame College, John Carroll and Gannon on Tuesday (Nov. 11) for the annual Cleveland City Colleges Meet. Diving begins at 3:00 p.m. followed by the swimming events at 5:00 p.m. The volleyball team will complete its regular season slate when they travel to nearby Youngstown for a match with YSU. The contest will be played on Friday, Nov. 14 at 7:00 p.m. The wrestling team will take part in a pair of events, participating in the Ashland Open on Saturday (Nov. 15) before heading to Columbus to take part in the Ohio State Duals on Sunday (Nov. 16). The cross country team will close out its season by running at the annual Great Lakes Regional. The 6,000-meter race will be run on at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 15 in West Lafayette, IN. Men's Basketball Hosts Oakland To Open The Season . . . With a month of preseason practice behind them, the Viking men's basketball team will open its 31-game 2008-09 regular season when CSU hosts Oakland on Saturday, Nov. 15 beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Wolstein Center. The first 2,000 fans in attendance will receive a free schedule magnet, courtesy of the Northern Ohio Dodge Dealers. "We've got a veteran ball club and I am ready to see what they are capable of doing," CSU head coach Gary Waters said. "The first three weeks of the season will be very difficult for us because we play at least six games against teams capable of reaching the post-season this year and every game will present us with a different challenge." The Vikings played their lone exhibition game on Monday (Nov. 11), routing John Carroll, 81-33. With the five seniors catching most of the preseason attention, it was the sophomore class that stood out in the game as Norris Cole (13 points), Eric Schiele (11) and D'Aundray Brown combined to score 33 points. CSU will however rely on senior quintet of Cedric Jackson, J'Nathan Bullock, Chris Moore, George Tandy and Renard Fields this year. Bullock and Jackson were each named to the Preseason All-Horizon League first team this season, and are two of the biggest reasons why the Vikings have been tabbed to win the league in eight of the nine polls released to date. Men's Soccer To Face Butler In Horizon League Semi-Finals . . . The Viking men's soccer team will be in Chicago this weekend to play in the semi-finals of the Horizon League Championship. CSU, the number three-seed, will face second-seeded Butler on Friday, Nov. 14 beginning at 6:00 p.m. at Flames Field on the campus of UIC. Top seed UIC will face No. 5 Loyola at 8:30 p.m. with the two winners meeting in the championship contest on Sunday (Nov. 16) at 2:30 p.m. "Our focus all season long has been on winning the Horizon League Championship and going to the NCAA Tournament," CSU head coach Ali Kazemaini said. "This is now our chance. We have to go and play against a good Butler team that we saw just two weeks ago and then come back two days later to play either Loyola or UIC. We are capable of winning this tournament if we do the things that we have all season long in league play." The Vikings 2-1 win over Wright State in the second round came after CSU trailed 1-0 at the intermission. Josh Williams scored on a headball at the 69:01 mark to tie the match and then six minutes later perfectly fed a long ball ahead to Slavisa Ubiparipovic for a breakaway goal that decided the match. It was a good week for Ubiparipovic as the junior earned first team all-league honors with junior defender Mitch Boyer repeating on the second team. Freshman Justin Mancine and junior Stephen Byer were each named to the Horizon League All-Newcomer team. Women's Basketball Travels To No. 17 Arizona State . . . Cleveland State opens the 2008-09 regular season when the Vikings travel to Tempe, Ariz., for an opening round game in the Preseason WNIT against 17th-ranked Arizona State. The Vikings prepared for the season opener by hosting Lake Erie for its lone exhibition game of the season on Sunday (Nov. 9) afternoon in the Wolstein Center. The Vikings shot .548 (34-62) from the field and had three players in double figures to run by the Storm, 79-46. "It feels so great to start the 2008-09 season and finally get to play against an opponent," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "We will always cherish last season, but we are turning the page and have an ultimate goal of winning the regular season championship, as well as the tournament championship and getting back to the NCAA tournament. We played a good opener against Lake Erie, but there are obviously things that we need to work on as we prepare for a talented Arizona State team." Freshman Janelle Adams had an outstanding start to her career, finishing with a game-high 13 points, three rebounds and two assists in just 10 minutes off the bench against Lake Erie. The Milwaukee, Wis., native made six-of-seven shots from the field, including her lone three-point attempt. Kailey Klein added 11 points and Shawnita Garland finished with 10 points, four rebounds and four assists off the bench as the Vikings outrebounded the Storm, 44-24. Volleyball Heads To Youngstown State For Regular Season Finale . . . Cleveland State concludes the 2008 regular season when the Vikings travel to Youngstown State for a 7:00 p.m. match on Friday, Nov. 14. CSU has won 16 straight matches over the Penguins, including a 3-0 sweep in Woodling Gym on Oct. 7. The Vikings enter the week in sixth place in the Horizon League with a 6-9 mark, one-and-a-half matches ahead of seventh place UIC (5-9) and one-half match behind fifth place Loyola (7-7). UIC and Loyola host Milwaukee and Green Bay this weekend. "We have to come out and play with a lot of intensity and emotion at Youngstown on Friday night," head coach Chuck Voss said. "A win could help us improve our seed for the conference tournament and also give us some momentum as we prepare to host the tournament. We have continued to play well on defense and continue to find a better rhythm on offense with each match." The Vikings went 1-1 over the weekend in Wisconsin, falling in three sets to Milwaukee on Friday, Nov. 7, before handing Green Bay a 3-0 setback on Saturday, Nov. 8. Jordan Bateman made 16 digs in each match to improve her career school-record total to 1,475 and her season mark to 405 as she became the first player in school history to record at least 400 digs in three straight seasons. Wrestling Heads To Ashland & Ohio State. . . The Vikings attempt to continue their success this weekend as they compete in the Ashland Open on Saturday (11/15) and the Ohio State Duals on Sunday (11/16). Rashard Goff won three matches bringing home first place honors. Josh Palivoda and Jordan Keller each won three matches on their way to sixth place finishes. "Our team battled hard all day," head coach Ben Stehura said. `We faced some of the top programs in the country and our guys did not back down." Lawrence Cavello, Antonio Nicholson and Dustin Doty each collected two victories. In the Freshman/Sophomore division Ricky King, Aric Thurn and Mike Mencini each earned victories. "We gained a lot of confidence at this tournament," Stehura said. "I am pleased with the way our team stepped up and performed." Cross Country Runs At Great Lakes Regional. . . After a week off, Cleveland State will conclude the 2008 season at the Great Lakes Regional Championship on Saturday, Nov. 15, in West Lafayette, Ind. Purdue University will serve as this year's host institution. "We have run very hard all season long and have had to battle through a lot of injuries," head coach Joe Jaketic said. "But the team has kept a positive attitude throughout the season and everyone has kept their heads up. We'll have two good weeks of practice and then go compete at the regional championships and hopefully end our season on a positive note." The Vikings were in last in action on Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Horizon League Championships in Green Bay, Wis., finishing 10th out of 10 teams. Freshman Brittany Elmlinger ran the second best time of her career (19:39) and finished 26th overall. She was also the third freshman to finish the race, just one second behind the second place freshman. Junior Colleen Conway placed 29th in 19:52. Busy Week For Swim Programs. . . The Vikings will be busy in the R.F. Busbey Natatorium this week. The teams host the City College Championships on Tuesday night, competing against Notre Dame College, John Carroll and Gannon. Diving events begin at 3 p.m. with the swimming events slated to start at 5 p.m. The teams are also home on Saturday, Nov. 15 when both the men and women face off against Notre Dame and the men also swim against Miami (Ohio) beginning at 2:00 p.m. "We've had some outstanding times in our fast water over the years both by our teams and by the other teams who compete in the meet," head coach Wally Morton said about previous City College Championships. "After two meets on the road, we are looking forward to returning to our friendly waters and we know there are going to be some outstanding races in the meet." The City College Championships follow up a solid week of competition by the Vikings. On Nov. 7, the men knocked off Niagara 146-91 while the women split a pair of dual meets with Niagara (W 149-92) and Youngstown State (L 140-93). On the men's side, the Vikings won all but four events highlighted by Stephen Grove, who recorded individual wins in both the 50 free and 200 fly. He and his CSU teammates Nedim Nisic and Deni Gasparin finished 1-2-3, respectively, in the 50 free. For the women, CSU won three events and set a new school record on the trip. Kacey Cummings won both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events while Carys Behn, Emily Splain, Kristina Bunker and Maria Culjak paired up to win the 400 free relay. Behn had another outstanding meet, breaking Jen Henshaw's school record of 5:05.93 set in 1999. Behn swam the event in 5:04.53. Viking High Fives Keith Everhart: The men's swimming freshman won the first race of his CSU career against Niagara. Everhart went 47.89 in the 100 free to edge out teammates Marko Milenkovi (48.24) and Mike Marsico (48.61). Carys Behn: Week three for the women's swimming freshman had her break the nine-year old school record in the 500 free. Behn swam a 5:04.53 to take second place overall. Janelle Adams: The women's basketball freshman scored a game-high 13 points - on 6-of-7 shooting - in Sunday's exhibition win over Lake Erie. Rashard Goff: The wrestling senior went undefeated en route to a first place victory at heavyweight at the Michigan State Open. Josh Williams: The men's soccer junior had a goal and an assist in the come-from-behind win over Wright State in the second round of the league tournament on Sunday.v The Schedule Ahead For The Vikings Nov. 11 (Tuesday) Nov. 14 (Friday) Volleyball at Youngstown State Women's Basketball at Arizona State Nov. 15 (Saturday) Swimming hosts Notre Dame & Miami (OH) Men's Basketball hosts Oakland Wrestling at Ashland Open Nov. 16 (Sunday) Horizon League Men's Soccer Championship Match |
