Klein controls backcourt
By Bryan D’Andrea
Last season, sophomore guard Kailey Klein lead the Vikings to the Horizon League tournament title and earned MVP of the tournament in the process.
Now Klein is a junior and the team’s expectations for the upcoming season are higher than ever. Along with fellow juniors Stephanie Crosley and Jessica and Angel Roque, Klein has been named captain of the team for the second consecutive year.
“She’s an amazing talent,” said head coach Kate Peterson Abiad of Klein. “But I think what she does off the court is equally as impressive. She’s a leader that expects a lot out of herself and her teammates.”
Klein enters the season as part of the Horizon League preseason first team along with five other players. She is expected to challenge University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s senior center Traci Edwards, who is a front runner for the end of the season player of the year.
To do that, Klein may have to improve on her school record 654 points in a season that she set last year. And although Klein is only 28 points away from becoming the 28th player in school history to score 1,000 points in a career, she admits that she will do as much as she can not to think about that.
“I try not to think about my scoring at all,” she said. “I found that when I worry about scoring points, that’s when I do worse. So I just try to go out there and play and let the game come to me.”
The Cherry, Ill. native, who is known around the league as a threat from the three point line along with having a knack for driving to the hoop and drawing a foul.
Last season, along her point’s record and being named to the Horizon League first team, Klein became one of only five players in school history to log 1,000 minutes in a season.
She is also only the third player in school history to lead the team in scoring in both her freshman and sophomore year.
Peterson Abiad said, “We have a number of factors to be successful this season and Kailey’s leadership and development is certainly one of them. I have no doubt that she’ll be able to do that.”
After defeating Lake Erie College 79-46 in an exhibition game last Sunday, CSU is set to begin the regular season with a contest at 17th ranked Arizona State University on Friday, Nov. 14 as part of the preseason WNIT.
The Vikings begin league play with an away matchup against Butler on Jan. 3 and Klein knows that this season the Vikings will have a target on their backs.
“In the past we were the team that would come in and teams would be like, ‘oh we don’t even have to try, we’re just going to win,’” she said. “Now that we’ve established ourselves, we are going to be the ones that come in every game and have to give our best effort because each team we play will want to beat ‘the team to beat’ this year.”Reach this Stater reporter at: b.dandrea@csuohio.edu