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Vikings Conclude Preseason WNIT With Two Games at Ball State
Nov. 19, 2008
Contact: Greg Murphy
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SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State continues play in the 2008 Preseason WNIT when the Vikings travel to Muncie, Ind., for a pair of games in the consolation second and third rounds. CSU will play Illinois State, a 2008 NCAA tournament qualifier, on Friday (Nov. 21) at 5:30 p.m. and will then play either Ball State or Robert Morris on Saturday (Nov. 22). If the Vikings play Ball State, the game will begin at 8:00 p.m. If CSU squares off against Robert Morris, the contest will tipoff at 5:30 p.m. 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 (18.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 4.5 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 (6.0 ppg, 2.5 apg) and Jessica Roque (10.0 ppg, 2.0 rpg), while sophomore Shawnita Garland (7.0 ppg, 5.0 apg) will serve as the top reserve off the bench. Senior Dominique Butler (18.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 4.0 spg) leads the frontcourt after earning Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year accolades last season, while junior Stephaine Crosley (2.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg) slides into the starting lineup this season. Senior Natalie Miller (2.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg) and sophomore Justine Hayes (1.0 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 (2.0 ppg, 1.5 rpg), Honesty King and Takima Keane and forwards Destinee Blue (2.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg) 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 48-102 (.320) 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. KLEIN WORTH A GRAND: Junior Kailey Klein became the 20th player in school history to reach the career 1,000 point mark on Tuesday (Nov. 18) with a three-point play late in the first half against Eastern Michigan. Just the fourth player in program history to record 1,000 points as a junior, Klein has scored 1,009 points for her career and is tied for 19th on the all-time scoring list with Lisa Kipp (1984-88). Klein is just 50 points shy of moving past LeAnna Hicks (1,059 points; 1994-99) and into 15th place on the all-time scoring list. The career scoring record at CSU is 1,851 points by Dianne Foster (1979-81; 82-84). ... AND BUTLER NOT FAR BEHIND: Senior Dominique Butler is close to becoming the second Viking to reach the 1,000 career point mark this season. The Milwaukee, Wis., native has scored 18 points in each of CSU's first two contests this season to raise her career scoring total to 875, needing 125 points to reach 1,000. ANOTHER BUTLER MILESTONE IN REACH: Dominique Butler is on the verge of becoming just the 12th player in program history to score 1,000 points and grab 500 rebounds in a career. Butler, who needs 125 more points and 31 more rebounds, would join Audra Cook, Dianne Foster, Deb Taylor, Mary Petrecca, Lanette Taylor, Terri Miller, Sue Hlavacek, Ashley Schrock, Megan Williams, Mahogany Green and Shannon Sword as the only players in school history to accomplish the feat. HOME OPENERS: Tuesday's game against Eastern Michigan was the 36th home opener in program history with the Vikings now claiming an all-time mark of 16-20 in home openers. It was the first time the Vikings won their home opener since 2005 when CSU defeated Hillsdale, 62-59. MAC ATTACK: The contest against Eastern Michigan on Tuesday (Nov. 18) was the first of six games that CSU will play against Mid-American Conference schools this season. CSU also has home games against MAC members Toledo, Kent State and Buffalo and road contests at Akron and Ohio. A seventh game against a MAC school is possible if the Vikings meet Ball State in the third round of the Preseason WNIT on Saturday (Nov. 22). CSU is 61-100 all-time against the MAC. TOUGH SCHEDULE: The Vikings have six games on this year's schedule against teams that advanced to postseason play last season. CSU has already played Arizona State, a team that went to the NCAA tournament last season and will also play NCAA tournament qualifiers Illinois State, Ohio State and NIT qualifiers American and Green Bay (twice). CSU also has a chance to play another NCAA qualifier in Robert Morris in the third round of the Preseason WNIT on Saturday, Nov. 22. VIKINGS EFFICIENT: Cleveland State has been very impressive on the offensive end through two games, shooting .565 (52-92) from the field. CSU opened the season by hitting 25-of-45 (.556) attempts from the field at Arizona State on Friday (Nov. 14) to record the fifth best shooting percentage in school history. The Vikings came back on Tuesday night against Eastern Michigan and bettered that mark, going 27-of-47 (.574) from the floor, which was the second best field goal percentage in school history. SECOND HALF HELPS: CSU's excellence from the field can be traced to their second half efforts this season as the Vikings have combined to go 32-of-44 (.727) from the floor in the second half of games. In fact, CSU has connected on 16-of-22 (.727) shots in the second half of both games this season. FIT TO BE QUEEN: Junior Angel Roque picked up the title of Homecoming Queen during the annual Vike Fest activities and her honor was announced at Viking Madness on Oct. 17. The king was men's basketball standout Cedric Jackson. NUMBER CHANGE: In addition to wearing her tiara as Homecoming queen, Angel Roque is sporting another new look this season as she has changed her jersey number to 40, the number that she wore in high school. Freshman Kaila Montgomery is wearing Roque's old number (4). NEW NUMBER, SAME RESULTS: After she accidentally left her home jersey in Arizona, Dominique Butler had to wear No. 2 on Tuesday (Nov. 18) against Eastern Michigan. No worries. The senior scored 18 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had four steals in 35 minutes. BUTLER FINDS THE MARK: Dominique Butler has begun her senior campaign in style, scoring 18 points in each of the first two games this season. Butler leads the Horizon League in field goal percentage (.708), hitting 17-of-24 shots from the field and is tied for the team lead in rebounding (6.1). In addition, she leads the league with 4.0 steals per game. AND SO DOES ROQUE: Junior Jessica Roque has responded well in her return to the starting lineup this season as she is averaging 10.0 points and 2.0 rebounds per game. She has hit 8-of-12 (.667) shots from the field, including 6-of-7 (.871) from two-point range. Roque started all 30 games as a freshman and was CSU's top reserve last season, coming off the bench in 32 of the 33 games. 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. DISHING IT OUT: Sophomore Shawnita Garland appears to have taken nicely to her new role as the first reserve off the bench. In 24.0 minutes per game, Garland is averaging 7.0 points, 1.5 rebounds, a league-leading 5.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game, while shooting .545 (6-11) from the field. Garland dished out a career-high seven assists and tied her career-high with five steals at Arizona State (Nov. 14). 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. CSU also won a school-record 10 Horizon League games last season, breaking the old mark of nine set in 2002-03. 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 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. 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). BUT NOT THIS YEAR: CSU has gotten off to a slow start at the free throw line this season, hitting just 26-of-38 (.684) from the charity stripe through two games. UP NEXT: The Vikings return home to host Toledo on Wednesday, Nov. 26 at 7:00 p.m.
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