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Vikings Picked as Preseason Horizon League Favorite
Aug. 19, 2008
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State, which won its first-ever Horizon League championship last season, has been picked to win the 2008 Horizon League regular season title in voting conducted by the nine league coaches. Results of the poll were released on Monday (Aug. 18). The Vikings received 64 total points and eight of the nine first place votes. CSU, led by ninth-year head coach Chuck Voss, returns five starters and its libero from last season's team that went 23-9, won the league tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Championship for the first time in school history. In addition, the Vikings return five other letterwinners and will combine that core with a strong group of five newcomers. "It's a great honor to be picked as the preseason favorite and I think the results show a tremendous amount of respect for our program," Voss said. "But we know last season is behind us and we are going to have to work hard in order to achieve our goals of winning the league title and returning to the NCAA tournament. The Horizon League is going to be tough again this year and we will have to play hard in each match to be successful." The Vikings return a pair of first team All-Horizon League selections in sophomore middle hitter Amy Benz and junior opposite Beth Greulich, the last two Horizon League Newcomer of the Year picks. In addition, senior middle hitter Jenni Ramminger, who was the 2005 newcomer of the year, is also back. Senior Jordan Bateman, who set a school-record with 599 digs last season, also returns for the Vikings, as does junior outside hitter Alexis Korovich who was one of just four players in the league to average at least 3.0 kills and 3.0 digs last year.
Valparaiso received the other first place vote, as coaches could not vote for their own teams, and finished second with 56 points. Five-time defending regular season champion Milwaukee was third with 50 points and was followed by UIC (38), Butler (31), Youngstown State (27), Wright State (24), Loyola (20) and Green Bay (14). The Vikings began preseason practice last week and will open the season at the Northern Illinois Invitational on Aug. 29-30. CSU's first match of the season is against Connecticut on the 29th at 6:00 p.m.
Team Total First place votes in parenthesis
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