Vikings Defeat Marshall in Five Sets, Win Thunder Invitational Tourney

CSU's 6-0 Start is Second Best in School History

Amy Grabiec made a career-high 31 digs in the win over Marshall.

Sept. 4, 2010

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

HUNTINGTON, W. Va. - Kara Koch recorded a career-high 25 kills and Amy Grabiec made a career-best 31 digs as Cleveland State won the Thundering Hurd Invitational with a 3-2 win over Marshall in the final match of the event on Saturday night.

Koch was named the MVP of the tournament, the second consecutive weekend she earned the honor at a tournament, and was joined on the all-tournament team by Grabiec and Jordan Goad.

It marks the second consecutive week that Grabiec was named to an all-tournament team.

CSU improved to 6-0 this season, marking the second best start in school history. Only the 1977 squad, which started 7-0, has opened a season with more wins. Marshall fell to 2-4.

Match scores were 25-21, 24-26, 21-25, 25-21, 15-12.

"This was a huge win for us, especially with the way we came back to win the final two sets," head coach Chuck Voss said. "We really battled hard and never gave up which is always great to see. We are playing with a lot of intensity and confidence right now and are excited to be coming home to open our home slate next weekend."

Koch was dominating all night, hitting .328 for the match (25-5-61), while adding eight digs.

"It seemed like whenever we needed a big point, or stop a run, Kara came through," Voss said. "She was big all match and has played so well during the first two weekends."

Jackie Dabbelt added 14 kills and Lindsey Griffith had 11 and Amy Benz eight. Jordan Goad just missed a double-double with 47 assists and nine digs.

After winning the first set, CSU dropped the next two to fall behind 2-1.

The Vikings raced out to a quick 3-0 lead in the fourth set, only to watch Marshall come back and tie the set at 5-5 on an Abby Tomas kill. However, a Koch kill was followed by a Marshall attack error to give the Vikings a 7-5 lead. CSU would not trail the rest of the set, increasing the lead to as many as seven points.

In the deciding set, the Vikings went to Koch early and often and the sophomore responded, recording four consecutive kills to open the set and give the Vikings a 4-0 lead.

The teams continued to trade points until the Thundering Herd scored four straight of their own to tie things at 8-8, forcing a Viking timeout. They traded points out of the timeout before a Koch kill and back-to-bacl Marshall attack errors gave CSU a 12-9 lead.

Marshall fought back to within 14-12 before a Griffith kill ended the match.

The final stats were fairly even with CSU posting more kills (63-61), digs (69-68) and assists (60-59) and Marshall holding advantages in aces (6-4) and blocks (20-17) and attack percentage (.212-.207).

CSU will be back in action next weekend (Sept. 10-11) when the Vikings host the CSU Invitational Presented by the Crowne Plaza Cleveland South. CSU will play George Washington at 7:00 p.m. on Friday (Sept. 10) to open the tournament before matches with Morgan State at 1:00 p.m. and Kent State at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday (Sept. 11).