Volleyball Beats Pesky Penguins; Wrap Up Horizon League

Volleyball head coach Chuck Voss has to rewrite his résumé. Now he can put Horizon League regular season Champions to an NCAA appearance, Horizon League Champions, and second most wins as a Vikings volleyball coach, since the Vikings beat Youngstown State in three straight sets on Friday night at Woodling Gym. The 3-0 win (25-19, 25-18, 25-13) brought the Vikings their 25th win on the year and their 13th win in the Horizon League. In fact, it is the first time in 26 years that a Viking volleyball team has reached 25 wins, but it is the seventh time that the Vikes have gotten to that plateau. "It doesn't seem possible, but we have great senior leadership," the coach said during the postgame celebration. "They have gotten us ready and prepared for 99% of the matches and they have done a great job for us." The Vikings did not have an easy ride in the first two sets of the match as Youngstown State came out and would not let CSU run over them. The Vikings did look like they were going to take care of business quickly, as they bounced out to a 7-1 lead as sophomore Megan Barhorst took four straight serves for points before surrendering a service error to the Penguins. From that point the Pens were no farther away than four points from tying the match. But CSU would score ten of the last 17 points to win the first set in without much worry after the few hiccups. "They're a good team, they battled," Viking senior Beth Gruelich said while enjoying their festivities. The Penguins did not let the loss go to their heads as they had leads early in the set of 3-2, 6-3, 9-5, 10-8, but let the Vikings back into it and the Vikes tied it at 10 a piece. From that part on, the Vikings would outscore Youngstown State 15-8 and take a commanding 2-0 and knew that the night was to be theirs. "They pushed us there the first two games pretty hard and when it was time to make plays I thought we really stepped up and make a couple of plays to separate ourselves," Voss said of both determined sides. Finally, the third set belonged all to the Vikings and the celebration began after another great regular season. Finally Chuck Voss had hunted down one of the major goals he was missing as coach, a first place finish in the league. Voss had finished 2nd in the league three times and no higher than fourth in his other six years at CSU. "It seems like the season has gone by so fast," Voss said after the Vikings beat down. The Vikings win the league with the win, but could have qualified with a loss by teams close to them in the standings, as YSU was looking for a win for an outside shot of squirming into the last seed in the tournament. Valparaiso lost Friday in Milwaukee and finish 11-5, two games behind the Vikes. In the Quarterfinals, #3 Butler (10-5 HL) will face #6 Green Bay (5-10) and #4 Milwaukee (9-6) will take on #5 UIC (8-7).

The final regular season match was a win for volleyball seniors Kayla Lefeld, Beth Greulich, Liz Fazio, and the rest of the Viking team. Now the 2009 Horizon League Championships will be played on the Viking's home floor starting Friday, November 20th. The Vikings will be at home the rest of the tournament that will consist of them playing the lowest seed coming out of the Quarterfinals on Saturday the 21st with a time to be determined. "I think home court is great. It's nice to be able to sleep in your own bed, go through your same routine, and there are no distractions when you are at home," the head coach exclaimed. "We know we have to take it one play at a time, one game at a time and one match at a time to be successful."