Sept. 22, 2008

Contact: Brian McCann

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Match 10
Wright State (5-4, 0-0) at Cleveland State (4-5, 0-0)
Date: Friday, Sept. 26, 2008
Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT
Site: Krenzler Field (1,680), Cleveland, Ohio
Series: Wright State Leads, 4-0
Last Meeting: @WSU 4, CSU 0 (10/7/07)

SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State returns home to open the 2008 Horizon League schedule when the Vikings host Wright State on Friday, Sept. 26 beginning at 7:00 p.m. at Krenzler Field. CSU has won four of its last five matches to improve to 4-5 on the season while Wright State is 5-4 after Sunday's 3-0 win over Duquesne.

REVIEWING LAST WEEK: The Vikings played two more non-conference matches last week, including their fourth home match-up of the year. Here is a synopsis of those contests:

Match 8: CSU 2, IPFW 0 (Sept. 19, Krenzler Field)
Abbie Kakias and Nicole Howard scored second half goals as the Vikings extended their win streak to four with a 2-0 win over IPFW. Kakias took advantage of an ill-advised charge by the IPFW goalkeeper to chip a ball in from 40 yards out while Howard one-timed a pass from Jennifer Wieand into the net in the 80th minute. Kelly Zinkiewich made 4 saves to record the shuout.

Match 9: Kentucky 4, CSU 0 (Sept. 21, Lexington, Ky.)
Kentucky scored a pair of goals in the first seven minutes to cruise to a 4-0 win and end CSU's school-record four match win streak. The Vikings were out-shot, 24-4, in the contest with Kelly Zinkiewich making five saves in goal.

PREVIEWING THE VIKINGS: The Vikings have come along nicely under fifth-year Viking head coach Derrek Falor as the return of eight starters from last year's 5-14-1 squad and the addition of 10 newcomers have given CSU its deepest and most talented team to date. Senior Jennifer Wieand (3 assists), CSU's career scoring leader with 32 points, leads the offense with senior Abbie Kakias (1 goal) joining her at forward along with sophomore Sylvia Olsby (1 goal, 1 assist, 3 points). The midfield lineup has been rebuilt with sophomore Allie Riczo 1-0-2), who redshirted last season, and freshman Natalie Daniels (3-1-7) being joined by freshmen Samantha Salamon and Rachel Strongoli (1 assist) starting outside. The defensive lineup is a veteran one with juniors Jessica McCloy and Danielle Ultican getting the starting nod in the middle with senior Maggie Pugliese and freshman Jordan King starting outside. Sophomore Kelly Zinkiewich returns in goal after starting all 20 matches last year, posting a 2.33 goals against average with 124 saves.

WIN STREAK ENDS AT FOUR: Friday's win over IPFW allowed the Vikings to extend their school record win streak to four matches, but the streak came t0 an end when CSU fell at Kentucky on Sunday. With consecutive wins over Robert Morris, Ohio, Eastern Kentucky and IPFW, the Vikings recorded their first successive victories in program history. Prior to this period, the best CSU could do was win two out of three matches early last season

WIEAND CLAIMS SCORING RECORD: With an assist on Nicole Howard's goal against IPFW, senior Jennifer Wieand became CSU's career scoring leader with 31 points. In addition, her three shots last week allowed her to raise her career total to 122 and break the school record of 119 formerly held by Heather Clapacs. Wieand has career totals of 11 goals and nine assists, leaving her one goal and one assist away from equaling the school records of 12 goals (by Shayna Back) and 10 assists (by Lisa Conway).

VIKINGS PICKED SEVENTH: Another highmark for the Vikings came during the preseason when Cleveland State was picked to finish tied for seventh in the Horizon League this season in a preseason poll of the league's coaches. In their four previous seasons, CSU was picked to finish last three times and tied for last once. Eight-time defending regular season champion Milwaukee was the preseason favorite, garnering seven of the nine first place votes and 63 points total. Loyola, who has won the league tournament in each of the last two years, was picked second with 58 points and the other two first place votes. Wright State (47 points) was third, followed by Butler (46). Detroit and Valparaiso were tied for fifth with 31 points and CSU and Green Bay were tied for seventh with 17 points. Youngstown State was ninth with 14 points.

ZINKIEWICH EYES SAVE MARK: With 42 saves in nine matches this season, sophomore goalkeeper Kelly Zinkiewich is closing in on second place on the career saves list. Zinkiewich has 166 career saves, including 124 last year, seven short of second place Ashley Kidwell, who had 173 stops from 2004-06.

. . . AND RECORDS FOURTH CAREER SHUTOUT: Kelly Zinkiewich has had a pretty good two weeks, setting a school record by posting back-to-back shutouts over Eastern Kentucky and IPFW. She has tied her own school mark with two shutouts this year, giving her a school-record four in her career.

. . . AND A RECORD SCORELESS STREAK: When Kentucky scored in the third minute of Sunday's match, it ended Kelly Zinkiewich's stretch of 223:47 without allowing a goal, the longest in CSU history. She went the final 41:19 vs. Ohio, all 90 minutes vs. both Eastern Kentucky and IPFW and 2:28 vs. Kentucky.

NEXT UP: The Vikings continue Horizon League play with a pair of matches. CSU plays at Detroit on Friday (Oct. 3) at 2:00 p.m. and then returns home to host Loyola on Sunday (Oct. 5) at 11:00 a.m. at Krenzler Field.