SPORTS

CSU continues dominance in Horizon League

Two home conference wins puts volleyball team in command of league standings

BY NICK CAMINO

In what was supposed to be two great match ups Friday night and Saturday afternoon for Cleveland State at home with UIC and Loyola in town, ended up being two standard 3-0 sweep victories for the Vikings. CSU Head Coach Chuck Voss isn’t complaining at the lack of drama.

Neither are the Vikings. With their two conference wins at home over the weekend against the downtown Chicago schools, the forest green and white moved into first-place in the Horizon League with an overall record of 15-5 and a 4-1 mark in the league.

On Friday, first-year Head Coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley and the UIC Flames came in to Woodling Gym hoping to get a win and share a piece of first place after a solid start in conference play, but the Vikings had other things in mind. CSU came right out of the gate, serving aggressively and not making many mistakes to win the first set 25-17.

In the second set, the Flames seemed more alive offensively, but again, a balanced CSU attack set up by sophomore setter Jordan Goad and teammates Liz Fazio and Kara Koch put the Vikings in position to sweep, winning the second set 25-21.

In the final set, UIC looked beaten and the Vikings took advantage, dismantling Schumacher-Cawley’s squad with a 10-3 run to win the final set 25-15.

Fazio finished with eight kills and 12 digs, while Koch chipped in with seven kills. Senior Maggie Bonomini charted a match-best 17 digs for the Vikings.

It was another huge conference win, Voss said following the match.

“I liked the way we played tonight,” Voss explained. “I wouldn’t say it is the best volleyball we have played all season, but UIC is a great team with a lot of talent and I never felt comfortable because they battled hard out there. But we continued to fight and play well.”

Voss admittedly knew the match was in hand heading into the final set.

“I felt strongly that if we continued to play aggressive and do what we did in winning the first two sets, that we should come out with a win and we did that,” Voss said.

On Saturday afternoon, Loyola came in fresh off a five-set win against Wright State, but Head Coach Marcie Wolbeck’s squad just could never get it going against the consistent Vikings onslaught.

The Vikings jumped on top of the Ramblers in the first set, winning 25-16 behind the play of senior outside hitter Beth Greulich, who finished the match with 14 kills.

Loyola seemed more comfortable in the second set, but lost 25-22 and from that point on, the rout was on as the Vikings won the final set 25-14, never giving Loyola a chance.

Koch chimed in with 10 kills, while Fazio had a solid afternoon tallying nine kills and 11 digs.

CSU resumes Horizon League action Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Woodling Gym, when the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers and Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix come in to downtown Cleveland.