Sept. 14, 2007

Final Stats

Contact: Brian McCann

AKRON, Ohio - Akron's Britni Back, the younger sister of Viking senior Shayna Back, scored the lone goal of the contest in the 65th minute as the Zips out-lasted Cleveland State, 1-0, on Friday night.

The loss drops the Vikings to 2-4 on the year while Akron improves to 4-0-1. CSU finishes its four-match in four-states road trip with a 2-2 record.

"Our effort was much better this evening," CSU head coach Derrek Falor said. "I was worried about our defensive setup heading into the match because we were going to have to play without a couple of starters, but we were able to regroup and battle along the back line."

The turning point in the contest may have come in the opening minutes of the second half when Viking defender Jessica McCloy was forced to the sideline with a sprained ankle. Up until that point, the pace of play had been fast with neither team dominating play.

With Maggie Pugliese and Allie Riczo already on the sideline because of injury, the McCloy injury caused a disruption in the CSU attack, allowing Akron the opening it needed to claim the contest.

The deciding goal came at the 64:47 mark when Britni Back worked her way on a corner kick towards the near post. Back gathered in the corner from Jess Pomfret and slipped it into the short side for the only goal of the contest.

"Set plays have been a problem for us all year and tonight was no exception," Falor said. "We allowed Akron's best goal scorer to go unmarked and it cost us the match."

Akron controlled play for most of the remainder of the half, owning an 8-2 shot advantage in the second half and an 11-4 edge for the match.

Viking freshman Kelly Zinkiewich made five saves in goal for CSU while Akron netminder Krystin Wilson made two saves in recording the shutout.

Cleveland State returns to action on Sunday when the Vikings host Canisius at 1:00 p.m. at Krenzler Field.