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Vikings Open Season at Arizona State in Preseason WNIT
Nov. 11, 2008
Contact: Greg Murphy
Complete Release in PDF Format
GAME 1 Date: Friday, November 14, 2008
SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State opens the 2008-09 regular season when the Vikings travel to Tempe, Ariz., to play 17th-ranked Arizona State in the opening round of the Preseason WNIT. This will be just the second all-time meeting between the two schools and will also mark CSU's second consecutive contest against a PAC-10 school after falling at Stanford in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last March. PREVIEWING CLEVELAND STATE: Coming off the most successful season in school history, sixth-year head coach Kate Peterson Abiad welcomes back three starters and eight letterwinners from last year's team that won the Horizon League Championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history. Headlining the list of returnees is junior guard Kailey Klein (19.8 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 3.2 apg) who was selected to the preseason All-Horizon League team for the second straight season. She finished her sophomore campaign with a school-record 654 points, earning first team All-Horizon League accolades. She will be joined in the backcourt by juniors Angel Roque (5.8 ppg, 2.5 apg) and Jessica Roque (5.2 ppg, 1.7 rpg), while sophomore Shawnita Garland (3.6 ppg, 1.8 rpg) will serve as the top reserve off the bench. Senior Dominique Butler (10.4 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 2.6 spg) leads the frontcourt after earning Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year accolades last season, while junior Stephaine Crosley (5.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg) slides into the starting lineup this season. Senior Natalie Miller (2.5 ppg, 1.4 rpg) and sophomore Justine Hayes (0.3 ppg, 0.4 rpg) will also battle for minutes in the frontcourt. The five-player freshman class has been described by Peterson Abiad as perhaps the deepest during her tenure at CSU and includes guards Janelle Adams, Honesty King and Takima Keane and forwards Destinee Blue and Kaila Montgomery. THE HEAD COACH: Kate Peterson Abiad is in her sixth year as the head coach of the Vikings and claims an overall record of 47-101 (.318) after leading the Vikings to 19 wins last season. The sixth head coach in school-history, Peterson Abiad spent six years as an assistant coach at Wisconsin, serving as the recruiting coordinator starting in 1998. She also worked at Eastern Illinois (1993-97) and Indiana (1991-93). A 1991 graduate of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, she earned Kodak All-America honors her senior season after setting the NCAA Division III record for three-point field goals per game at 3.85. VIKINGS TURN 36: The 2008-09 season will be Cleveland State's 36th season of women's basketball. The Vikings have compiled an all-time record of 356-535 for a .400 winning percentage and are also 87-131 (.399) in 15 seasons in the Horizon League. CSU won its first-ever Horizon League Championship last season. FOR OPENERS: Friday's contest at Arizona State marks the 36th season of intercollegiate women's basketball at Cleveland State. The Vikings are 12-23 all-time in season openers and have lost their last nine openers. The last time CSU won a season opener was Nov. 16, 1998, when the Vikings topped Chicago State, 106-58. ADAMS IMPRESSIVE: Freshman Janelle Adams made quite a first impression in CSU's 79-46 win over Lake Erie in an exhibition game on Sunday, Nov. 9. The Milwaukee, Wis., native scored a game-high 13 points, hitting 6-of-7 shots from the field, including her lone three-pointer in just 10 minutes of action. Adams also added three assists, two rebounds and a steal. KLEIN NAMED TO ALL-HORIZON LEAGUE SQUAD: Junior guard Kailey Klein has made quite an impression on the league during her first two seasons and has been selected to the preseason All-Horizon League first team for the second straight season. Klein received the second most votes in the polling, finishing behind Milwaukee's Traci Edwards who was the preseason Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. VIKINGS PICKED FOURTH IN PRESEASON POLL: CSU has been selected to finish fourth in the 2008-09 Horizon League Preseason poll in voting conducted by coaches, media and sports information directors. CSU received 228 points and one first place vote, finishing behind first place Green Bay (284 points, 24 first place votes), Wright State (241; 1) and Milwaukee (240; 2). Last season, the Vikings were tabbed eighth and went on to win their first-ever Horizon League Championship after finishing fourth in the regular season. DANCING WITH THE VIKINGS: CSU is coming off a season in which the Vikings won their first-ever Horizon League Championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. After defeating Butler, Green Bay and Wright State in the league tournament, CSU earned the 15th-seed in the West Region and fell at eventual national runner-up Stanford in the opening round of the NCAA Championship. 19 WINS WERE SCHOOL-RECORD: CSU won 19 games last season, three more than the Vikings had won in the previous three seasons combined (2004-07). The 19 wins were the second most in school history, topped only by the 1982-83 squad which won 23. AND A PERFECT 10 IN THE LEAGUE: The Vikings set a program record by winning 10 Horizon League contests last season, one more league victory than CSU combined to win during the previous three seasons. The old record for league wins in a season was nine in 2002-03 during Kate Peterson Abiad's first season at the helm. A MUCH IMPROVED TEAM: The Vikings were the fifth most improved team in Division I in 2007-08 with a nine and a half game improvement. After going 8-22 in 2006-07, CSU turned things around by going 19-14 last season. The Vikings began the season 3-5, but went on to win 11 of their next 13 contests, including separate win streaks of five and six games. KLEIN & BUTLER CLOSING IN ON 1,000 POINTS: CSU has two players on the verge of reaching the 1,000-point plateau for their careers. Junior Kailey Klein enters the 2008-09 season just 28 points shy of 1,000 for her career, while senior Dominique Butler needs to score 161 points to reach the 1,000-point mark. The duo would be the 20th and 21st players in school-history to reach the milestone. DOUBLE THE PLEASURE FOR VIKING FANS: After playing six doubleheaders last season, the CSU men's and women's teams will share five dates at home during the 2008-09 season. Following is a complete list of dates and opponents with all the women's contests beginning at 5:00 p.m. followed by the men's games at 7:30 p.m. Date Women's Game Men's Game THREE STARTERS RETURN: The Vikings return three starters (Dominique Butler, Kailey Klein, Angel Roque) from last seasons NCAA team, but juniors Jessica Roque and Stephaine Crosley both have experience in the starting lineup. Roque started all 30 contests as a freshman, while Crosley started the first nine games of her freshman campaign before being sidelined by an injury. SPECIAL "K": Kailey Klein returns for her third season in the Green and White after scoring a school-record 654 points last season and ranking in the top-15 of the Horizon League in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, free throw percentage, field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage. She became the first player from CSU to earn first team All-Horizon League honors since 2003-04 and was selected as the Horizon League Championship MVP after averaging 22.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists in three league tournament contests. CSU AND THE PAC-10: After concluding their 2007-08 season with a loss at Pac-10 power Stanford, the Vikings will open this season at another Pac-10 powerhouse, playing at 14th-ranked Arizona State in the first round of the Preseason WNIT on Friday, Nov. 14. CSU is 1-3 all-time in games against Pac-10 schools, including 0-1 vs. ASU. THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE (THROWS): The Vikings set a school-record by shooting .797 (480-602) from the free throw line last season. It was the fourth best percentage in the nation during the 2007-08 campaign and the second highest total in league history, trailing the 2006-07 Green Bay squad which shot .801 (447-558). BEWARE OF THE BUTLER: Senior Dominique Butler has earned a spot on the Horizon League All-Defensive team for three straight seasons and last season became the first CSU player to earn defensive player of the year accolades. She has 213 career steals to rank fifth all-time in school history. Last season, Butler became just the eighth player in school history to shoot at least .500 from the field, connecting on 140-of-280 (.500) field goals. UP NEXT: The Vikings return home for the 2008-09 home opener on Tuesday, Nov. 18, when CSU hosts Eastern Michigan in the Wolstein Center at 7:00 p.m.
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