Saturday, November 2 Results
Cleveland State def., Wright State, 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-9)
Green Bay def., Valparaiso, 3-2 (22-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-19, 15-13)
Milwaukee def., UIC, 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-15)
Oakland def., Youngstown State, 3-1 (25-20, 25-18, 20-25, 25-22)
Cleveland State 3, Wright State 0
The Cleveland State volleyball team was able to snap a six-match losing skid Saturday, picking up a 3-0 victory over Wright State. The Vikings now stand at 13-10 overall and 3-7 in Horizon League play.
Set scores against the Raiders were 25-17, 25-18, 25-9.
The Vikings had a balanced offensive attack against the Raiders, with five players notching at least six kills, including Kerry Winchester and Maggie Hannon who each tallied eight. Nikki Holmes had a match-high 19 digs, while Dayna Roberts posted 16 assists and Annie Djukic tallied 14. Hannon also led the Vikings with five blocks.
The Vikings gained control early in the first set and eventually earned a nine-point lead (23-14) after posting six straight points on Katie Nesbitt and Djukic kills and a Dawn Lingenfelter service ace. CSU then closed out the set with kills from Hannon and Nesbitt, posting the 25-17 set victory.
The second set was much of the same, as the Vikings controlled the momentum from start to finish. After gaining a three-point lead at the 12-9 mark, CSU extended its lead to seven points (18-11) with a 4-0 run that included kills from Winchester and Hannon. The Vikings then held at least a five-point lead for the remainder of the frame and put the set away with back-to-back kills from Kerry Winchester and Christina Toth.
After gaining a 2-0 advantage in the match, the Vikings cruised to a 25-9 victory during the final frame. During the middle of the set, Roberts stepped in to serve 10 straight points, gaining a 20-5 lead for the Vikings. CSU then closed the match with a pair of Winchester kills and a Wright State error.
Green Bay 3, Valparaiso 2
Led by a career-high 21 kills from sophomore Taylor Kasal and 15 team blocks, the Green Bay volleyball team handed Valparaiso its second conference loss of the season with a thrilling 3-2 win on Saturday evening at the Kress Center.
Green Bay, celebrating both Parents Day and Alumni Day, fell in the first set, 22-25, but responded with set scores of 25-23, 20-25, 25-19, 15-13 to win the match, evening its overall record at 12-12 while improving to 7-4 in the conference. Valpo dropped to 22-5 overall and 8-2 in the Horizon League.
Kasal had 16 digs to go along with her 21 kills, registering her first double-double of the year. Sophomore Mikaela Gunderson led the Phoenix at the net, chipping in nine blocks (1S, 8A) as the Phoenix finished with a total of 15 team blocks.
Even at 7-7 in the first, Valparaiso used a 4-0 run to jump out to an 11-7 lead. The Crusaders extended the lead to five points (16-11), but a three-point rally by the Phoenix pulled the home team back to within two points (16-14) while forcing a Valpo timeout. Green Bay mounted a late rally to pull back to within two points, 24-22, but they couldn’t complete the effort as the Crusaders took the first set, 25-22.
Green Bay put the first two points of the second set on the board and maintained that advantage all the way to 7-5. At that point the Phoenix used a 7-2 scoring run to jump out to a 14-7 lead, causing the Crusaders to call a timeout. Maintaining the advantage late into the set, Valpo stormed back with a 5-1 run to pull back to within two, 21-19. But Green Bay held strong through the threat, finishing on a kill by Gunderson to take the second set, 25-23.
Valpo controlled play early in the third set, jumping out to a 6-1 advantage before the Phoenix called a timeout. However, Green Bay slowly chipped away at the advantage and used a 4-0 run midway through the set before grabbing the lead, 17-16, on a block by Kasal and Gunderson. Green Bay continued to lead at 19-18, but the Crusaders closed the match on a 7-1 run to win the set, 25-20.
Knotted at 13 in the fourth set, Green Bay used a 3-0 run to assume a 16-13 advantage. Four of the next six points went to the Phoenix as it built its lead to 20-15 before Valpo called a timeout. The Crusaders took the first three points out of the break, but Green Bay finished the set with a 5-1 scoring advantage that featured all five points coming on kills by Kasal to win, 25-19.
The fifth set opened with the Phoenix jumping out to a 6-1 advantage and never looking back. Valpo made it interesting down the stretch, rallying to get to within three and eventually one point (14-13) in the closing points but a service error by Kelsey Berrington sealed the win for the Phoenix, 15-13.
Freshman Shannon Hurley and sophomore Emily Riese also notched double-doubles on Saturday, as Hurley finished with 16 kills and 10 digs, and Riese ended with 58 assists and 11 digs. Senior Leah Van Zeeland posted eight blocks and sophomore Jillian Bauer had a match-best 32 digs.
Ellen Vanden Berg led the Crusaders with 13 kills and six blocks.
Milwaukee 3, UIC 0
Rachel Neuberger celebrated Senior Day with 13 kills and was one of four Panthers in double figures as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee claimed a convincing 25-15, 25-21, 25-15 win over UIC Saturday afternoon at the Klotsche Center.
The Panthers (14-9, 10-1 Horizon) bounced back from their only league loss of the season by hitting .384 and controlling the contest with the Flames from start to finish.
Plus, with Valparaiso losing at Green Bay Saturday, the Panthers are again one match ahead in the Horizon League standings with two weekends remaining in the regular season.
Maggie Dunbar added 11 kills and didn't commit an error in 17 attempts in her best performance of the season for Milwaukee, while Myann Ruiz and Julie Kolinske contributed 10 kills apiece.
The Panthers were also strong defensively, limiting UIC to .083 hitting clip while tallying 40 digs and 6.5 blocks. Hannah Blanchard led the way with 10 digs while Neuberger had six blocks.
In particular, the offensive performance marked a stark turnaround from Friday night, when the Panthers hit just .078 and had 36 errors in losing to Valpo. Today, Milwaukee returned to the form that has it leading the Horizon League in every offensive category.
"You have to learn from situations and that's what we were able to do. It was a lot to address because the match was tough last night and to turn around and come and play the way we did today is great," Milwaukee head coach Susie Johnson said. "We talked as a team and some people were saying they were playing safe. You can't really win and play safe. As soon as you play safe, you actually make errors. It was important to get our heads on right, watch a little film of themselves and just see that it's not that hard. We work on it in practice we work on all of these situations so to go hard and be smart about it and that's what we did today."
Milwaukee was rarely threatened in Saturday's contest. The Panthers broke a 10-all tie in the first set with three-straight points and wound up closing out the frame on a 15-5 run. The second set was tighter but UWM took the lead for good at 8-7 and maintained a lead of 3-5 points most of the way.
Then in the third frame, the Panthers built an early 11-7 lead and steadily added to it. Milwaukee wound up hitting .467 in the final set, collecting 16 kills and just two errors.
Oakland 3, Youngstown State 1
Melissa Deatsch rolled to another double-double with 14 kills and 15 digs as Oakland (12-14, 6-5 HL) defeated Youngstown State (14-11, 6-4 HL) on Saturday afternoon in the Beeghly Center. OU was victorious with set scores 25-20, 25-18, 20-25 and 25-22.
"I am very proud that our team competed extremely well on back to back nights against two quality opponents," said head coach Rob Beam. "We continue to make tremendous progress as a group."
Jessica Dood earned a game-high 17 kills and Cassie Pelloni added 14 of her own. Taylor Humm provided a great defensive effort with 23 digs and Ciara Schultz contributed three service aces. As a team, Oakland hit .149 compared to YSU's .079.
In the first affair, the Penguins led for a large portion of the set but Pelloni put a ball to the floor to get the side out for Oakland and the Grizzlies initiated their comeback effort down 12-15. The next eight points would be Oakland's to take control of the set and the Grizzlies cruised to the 25-20 first-set win. The second set featured an early 4-4 tie before Oakland hit the gas and rolled to the 25-18 victory, heightening the match score to 2-0.
Set three was back-and-forth in the early goings before Youngstown State gathered its offense and rallied for the do-or-die win, 25-20. The Grizzlies still had the chance to end the match in the fourth set but the Penguins would definitely give them a run for their money. In the tightest set of the match, the score was tied at 20-20 but Deatsch would earn three of her team's final five kills to end the set 25-22 and the match 3-1.
