Vikings Travel to Bowling Green and Wright State This Week
    CSU is 18-5 Overall and Tied For First Place in Horizon League
    Jordan Goad

    Jordan Goad

    Oct. 12, 2009

    Contact: Greg Murphy

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    Matches 21-23

    Cleveland State (18-5, 7-1) at Bowling Green (7-13)
    Date: Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009
    Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT
    Site: Anderson Arena (4,700) - Bowling Green, Ohio
    Series: CSU leads, 18-15
    Last Mtg.: CSU 3, BGSU 2 (9/18/09)

    Cleveland State at Wright State (10-11, 2-6 HL)
    Date: Friday, Oct. 16, 2009
    Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT
    Site: McLin Gymnasium (500) - Fairborn, Ohio
    Series: WSU leads, 32-22
    Last Mtg.: @CSU 3, WSU 1 (9/15/09)

    QUICK SETS: After playing five of its last six matches at home, the Cleveland State volleyball team heads back on the road for a pair of matches this week, beginning with a 7:00 p.m. contest at Bowling Green on Tuesday (Oct. 13) in the final nonconference match of the season. CSU then travels to Wright State on Friday (Oct. 16) to continue league play. The Vikings begin the week having won seven straight matches to improve to 18-5 overall and finished the first round of league play tied for first place with Valparaiso at 7-1. CSU does claim a 3-0 win at Valpo on its resume earlier in the season.

    REVIEWING LAST WEEK: Cleveland State ran its win streak to seven with three wins last week. Following are brief recaps of the four matches.

    Match 20: CSU 3, Youngstown State 0 (Oct. 7, Youngstown, Ohio)
    Beth Greulich had 20 kills and hit .500 to lead the Vikings to a 3-0 win at Youngstown State. Liz Fazio aided Greulich with 14 kills, Maggie Bonomini made a match-high 16 digs, allowing her to become the 12th player in CSU history to record 1,000 career digs.

    Match 21: CSU 3, Milwaukee 0 (Oct. 10, Cleveland, Ohio)
    Liz Fazio notched her eighth double-double of the season with 13 kills and 12 digs and Beth Greulich added 11 kills as Cleveland State swept Milwaukee. Jordan Goad finished with 30 assists and seven digs, while Maggie Bonomini recorded a match-best 14 digs.

    Match 22: CSU 3, Green Bay 1 (Oct. 11, Cleveland, Ohio)
    Beth Greulich, Amy Benz and Liz Fazio combined for 51 kills to lead Cleveland State to a 3-1 win over Green Bay. Jordan Goad dished out 56 assists and 10 digs for CSU, which had its steak of consecutive sets won at 20 when UWGB won the fourth set.

    PREVIEWING THE VIKINGS: With one of the deepest and most talented rosters he has had during his tenure at Cleveland State, Chuck Voss has the Vikings off to an 18-5 start and in first place in the Horizon League. Leading the way are junior middle hitter Amy Benz (2.65 kpg, 0.88 bpg, .341) and senior right side Beth Greulich (3.15, 0.74, .345) who are both two-time first team All-Horizon League selections. Sophomore Megan Barhorst (1.00, 0.95, .188) joins Benz in the middle, while sophomore setter Jordan Goad (10.70 apg, 2.06 dpg, 1.04 kpg) is in her second season directing the Viking offense and continues to develop a good rapport with her hitters. Senior Liz Fazio (3.44 kpg, 2.71 dpg, .218) is the most experienced outside hitter on the team, while freshman Kara Koch (2.42, 0.97, .205) and sophomore Lindsey Griffith (1.52, 0.66, .054) are also in the mix, making up for the loss of senior Kayla Lefeld who is out of the season with a knee injury. Senior libero Maggie Bonomini (4.11 dpg) leads the backrow, while sophomore Amy Grabiec (2.19), junior Meghan Mental (1.81) and freshman Amanda Medvetz (1.12) are defensive specialists who can get the Vikings into their offense with good ball control and passing skills.

    GREULICH TABBED PLAYER OF THE WEEK... AGAIN: For the second straight week, senior Beth Greulich has been selected as the Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week. The right side hitter earned the award after averaging 5.00 kills and 0.80 blocks per set, while hitting .462. Greulich began the week with a 19-kill performance at Youngstown State on Wednesday before adding 11 against Milwaukee and 20 vs. Green Bay over the weekend.

    ALL ABOUT GREULICH: Horizon League Player of the Year candidate and two-time first team all-league pick Beth Greulich is having another outstanding season. Here are some highlights.
    • Ranks second in the league in hitting pecentage (.345), seventh in kills (3.15) and eighth in points (3.58).
    • Has double-digit kills in 13 matches, including season-high of 20 against Bowling Green and Green Bay.
    • Has led CSU to a 7-1 league mark by averaging 3.89 kills and 0.82 blocks, while hitting .374 in league matches.
    • Tallied double-digit kills in each of her last six matches, totaling 86 kills and hitting .466 (86-11-161) over that span.
    • Hit better than .400 in 12 matches, better than .500 four times and a season-best .650 (13-0-20) at Western Carolina.
    • Is fourth in CSU history in hitting pecentage (.318), sixth in kills (1,208) and block assists (319) and 10th in total blocks (344).
    • Two-time Horizon League Player of the Week (Oct. 5 and 12).

    FAZIO CAN HIT & DIG: Liz Fazio has always been a successful attacker and that has never been more evident than this season as she ranks third in the league with 3.44 kills per set. However, it has been her defense that has been even more impressive as Fazio is ranked second on the team with 209 digs after totaling just 134 over the last two seasons. Fazio had a career-high 20-dig effort against Wright State and leads the team with nine double-doubles.

    ON THE ATTACK: CSU has played 23 matches this season and the Vikings are on pace to shatter the school record for hitting percentage in a season as CSU has hit at a .252 clip. The 2004 and 2005 squads share the record at .239.

    BENZ ON TARGET: Junior Amy Benz has been one of the most accurate hitters during her career and this year has been no different as she ranks fourth in the league in hitting percentage (.341). Benz, who led the league in attack percentage in each of her first two seasons, has hit better than .500 in 10 matches this season, including a career-best .737 (14-0-19) against Robert Morris (Sept. 1).

    ... AND MOVING UP THE CHARTS: Amy Benz is quickly making her way up the career charts at CSU, ranking third all-time in attack percentage (.324), fifth in block assists (332), sixth in total blocks (380) and 10th in solo blocks (48).

    BONOMINI ALSO MOVING UP: With 48 digs in three matches last week, senior Maggie Bonomini moved into a tie for eighth place on the all-time digs list at CSU with 1,044. Bonomini, who needs 16 more digs to take over sixth place, is ranked seventh in the Horizon League with 4.11 digs per set to lead the Viking defense. She has recorded double-digit digs in 20 of 23 matches this season, including a career-high 29 digs at Butler on Sept. 25.

    IT'S ALL GOAD: Sophomore setter Jordan Goad has the CSU offense rolling, leading the Vikings to a Horizon League best .252 attack percentage. Goad, who leads the league in assists (10.70 aps), is already ranked fifth on the all-time assist list in Viking history with 2,053.

    COUNTDOWN TO 200: Now in his 12th season as a head coach, Chuck Voss is just seven wins shy of reaching 200 career wins. He is 193-166 during his tenure as a coach and picked up his 150th career win at CSU in the Vikings win over Western Carolina on Sept. 12. Voss, who is 160-130 in 10 seasons at CSU, is second on the all-time wins list in school history, trailing Mary Motley, who won 293 matches from 1978-92.

    WINNING WITH SWEEPS: With at least 10 matches left this season, the Vikings have already won 18 matches, seven more than they won all of last season, while their seven Horizon League victories equals last season's total. In addition, 14 of CSU's 18 wins have come via sweeps.

    STREAKED SNAPPED: When the Vikings dropped the fourth set to Green Bay on Sunday (Oct. 11), it snapped a string of 20 consecutive sets won for CSU, whose last set lost was a 15-13 setback at Butler in the fifth set on Set. 25. The 20 straight wins was the longest streak in school history since the 1982 squad won 22 straight sets.

    LET'S GET 20: CSU is just two wins shy of reaching the 20-win mark for the second time under head coach Chuck Voss and the 11th time in school history. Voss led the Vikings to 23 wins in 2007, but prior to that, CSU had not won 20 matches since 1988 (20-22).

    UP NEXT: Cleveland State returns home next weekend for matches against Valparaiso and Butler on Friday and Saturday (Oct. 23-24).