Nov. 10, 2008

Contact: Greg Murphy

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QUICK SETS: Cleveland State concludes the 2008 regular season with its third straight road match when the Vikings travel to Youngstown State on Friday, Nov. 14, for a 7:00 p.m. match. CSU, which has won 16 straight matches over YSU, is currently in sixth place in the league standings heading into the final weekend. CSU holds a half-match lead over seventh-place UIC (5-9) and trails Loyola (7-7) by one-and-a-half matches for fifth place. CSU cannot finish higher than fifth place in the regular season as fourth place Butler has an 8-7 league mark.

REVIEWING LAST WEEK: CSU travelled to Wisconsin for a pair of matches last weekend. Here are brief recaps of each match.

Match 24: Milwaukee 3, CSU 0 (Nov. 7, Milwaukee, Wis.) - 25-19, 25-19, 25-17
Liz Fazio had a match-high 11 kills, but Cleveland State hit -.011 over the final two sets as Milwaukee claimed a 3-0 win. Jordan Bateman amassed 16 digs, while Jordan Goad finished just shy of a double-double with 30 assists and nine digs.

Match 25: CSU 3, UWGB 0 (Nov. 8, Green Bay, Ohio) - 25-21, 25-22, 25-20
Beth Greulich had a match-best 13 kills and CSU hit .286 as a team to earn a 3-0 sweep at Green Bay. Leading two sets to none, CSU broke open a 10-10 tie in the third set with an 11-5 run to take the lead and earn the sweep. Amy Benz, Jenni Ramminger and Kayla Lefeld had eight kills each.

PREVIEWING THE VIKINGS: Cleveland State enters the final weekend of the regular season in hopes of moving up the standings to improve its seed for the league championship. Freshman Jordan Goad (9.81 ast/s, 1.69 dps) has taken the reigns as the starting setter and continues to develop a good rapport with each of CSU's hitters. Junior opposite Beth Greulich, a two-time first team all-league selection, leads the team with 237 kills and a .256 hitting percentage. Senior middle hitter Jenni Ramminger (2.27 k/s, 0.84 blk/s) and sophomore middle blocker Amy Benz (2.15 k/s, .271, 0.98 blk/s) are CSU's top players in the middle of the court. A talented group of experienced outside hitters is led by juniors Kayla Lefeld (2.39 k/s, 1.72 d/s) and Liz Fazio (2.11 k/s). This year's squad may be the best defensive squad in Voss' tenure, led by libero Jordan Bateman (4.22 d/s), the CSU record holder for career digs (1,475). She is joined in the backrow by junior Maggie Bonomini (2.61 d/s), sophomore Meghan Mental (1.05 d/s) and freshman Amy Grabiec (1.71 d/s).

THE HEAD COACH: In his ninth year at the helm of the Viking volleyball program, head coach Chuck Voss has methodically built the program from the ground up. He inherited a team that had not enjoyed a winning season in 17 years and turned things around in his third season (2002) when he led CSU to an 18-16 mark. CSU recorded six straight winning seasons (2002-07), the most since the program opened with seven straight (1972-78). Voss has a 138-125 (.525) mark at CSU, ranking second on the all-time wins list. Voss, who has a 171-160 (.518) overall record in 10 seasons, has mentored the only two All-Americans in school history, the 2005 Horizon League Player of the Year, 13 first team all-league picks, eight all-newcomer team members and four league Newcomer of the Year picks.

WHERE WE STAND: Entering the final weekend of the Horizon League schedule, the Vikings are in sixth place with a 6-9 mark and are assured of finishing in either fifth, sixth or seventh place. CSU holds a one-half match lead over seventh place UIC (5-9) and trail fifth place Loyola (7-7) by one-and-a-half matches.

SUCCESSFUL VS. PENGUINS: CSU has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success on the volleyball court against Youngstown State, claiming an all-time mark of 43-13. The 43 victories are the most by CSU over any opponent in program history. In fact, the Vikings have won 16 straight matches over YSU, including a 3-0 sweep in Woodling Gym on Oct. 7.

SPREADING THE WEALTH: Freshman setter Jordan Goad has done an admirable job of getting each of CSU's hitters involved in the offensive scheme as five players have topped the 400 attack attempt mark. Kayla Lefeld leads the way with 642 swings, while Beth Greulich (583), Amy Benz (535) and Jenni Ramminger (504) also have more than 500 attempts this season. Liz Fazio is the final player with more than 400 attempts, ranking fifth on the team with 467 swings.

BATEMAN ADDS TO RECORD: With 32 digs in two matches last weekend, senior libero Jordan Bateman raised her career school-record dig total to 1,475. Her total is also the seventh highest in Horizon League history and with 26 more digs, she will become just the sixth player in league annals to reach 1,500 career digs.Bateman, who has eight 20-dig matches this season, ranks fifth in the conference in digs (4.22) this season.

27 MORE DIGS TO GO: With her 32 digs last weekend, Jordan Bateman reached the 400 dig mark for the third consecutive season, becoming the only player in school history to accomplish the feat. After totaling a then school-record 457 digs as a sophomore, Bateman shattered that mark with 599 digs last season, the second most in Horizon League history. She has made 405 digs this year.

SWEEPING SUCCESS: Five of CSU's eight wins this season have come via 3-0 sweeps as the Vikings are 5-6 in three-set matches this year. In fact, CSU, which has won four of its six league matches 3-0, is just 2-12 in matches that go more than three sets this season.

ROAD WIN: CSU's 3-0 win at Green Bay on Saturday (Nov. 8) marked the first road win of the season for the Vikings (1-9). It marked the longest stretch that CSU has gone winless on the road to open a season in program history.

LEFELD EMBRACES STARTING ROLE: Junior Kayla Lefeld has picked up her game since being inserted into the starting lineup 11 matches ago. During that stretch, Lefeld has recorded five double-doubles and is averaging 11.9 kills and 9.4 digs per match, while also contributing 17 aces, 16 blocks and hitting .179. She tied her career-high with 14 digs versus Youngstown State (Oct. 7) and set a season-high with 19 kills at UIC on Oct. 17.

JENNI ON THE BLOCK: Senior Jenni Ramminger has continued to climb up the all-time blocks list at CSU. Ramminger, who has made 73 blocks this year, is fourth on the all-time blocks list in CSU history (406) and third in on the block assists chart with 363 for her career.

ACE, ACE, BABY: The Vikings have dominated the serving statistic this season, holding a 137-97 advantage in service aces this season. Jordan Bateman leads the way with 28 while also ranking sixth in the Horizon League (0.29). Jordan Goad (26) and Kayla Lefeld (24) rank second and third on the squad.

GOOD RECEIVERS: One reason for the disparity in service aces between CSU and its opposition this season has been the Vikings serve-receive defense. Through 25 matches, CSU has totaled just 97 reception errors in 97 sets, ranking first in the league. They are the only squad with fewer than 100 receiving errors this season.

FIVE ALIVE: Cleveland State's 3-2 win over Wright State on Oct. 25 marked the first time in eight matches this season that the Vikings won a five-set match. Even more impressive was that CSU lost the first two sets before coming back to win the final three.

BIG CROWD: It would be safe to say that the Nov. 1 Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) Day was a huge success as the event drew a school-record 982 fans. It topped the old mark of 913 set on Oct. 21, 2005, on CYO Day against Wright State.

UP NEXT: The Vikings will begin play in the Horizon League Championship which will take place from Nov. 20-23 in Woodling Gym. The date, time and opponent will be determined on this weekend's league results.