Cleveland State falls to Albany in the First Round of the NCAA Volleyball Championship

Nov. 30, 2007

Box Score

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - In its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Volleyball Championship, Cleveland State fell to Albany 3-0 (30-20, 30-20, 30-25) in the first round. The loss ends CSU's season at 23-9, while Albany advances to the second round to face the No. 3 seed Penn State on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in Rec Hall.

Beth Greulich paced the Vikings with 10 kills, while Alexis Korovich had nine. Mel Snyder finished her CSU career by dishing out 29 assists and Jordan Bateman totaled a match-best 14 digs.

Valerie Sourbeer and Amanda Cowdrey tallied 11 kills apiece to lead Albany, while Brooke Stanley handed out 33 assists.

Albany controlled a majority of game one as the Vikings could not seem to switch the momentum after the Great Danes raced out to an 8-3 lead to force an early CSU timeout. Albany would push the advantage to as many as 10 points as the Great Danes hit .375 (14-2-32) for the game. In addition, four different players recorded three kills apiece for Albany, which held an 8-1 advantage in blocks in game one.

CSU took its first lead of the match when back-to-back kills from Beth Greulich and Alexis Korovich gave the Vikings a 2-0 advantage to open game two. However, the lead was short-lived as Albany came back with four straight points to take a 4-2 lead and never relinquished it. For as good as the Great Danes played in game one, they were even better in the second game, hitting .586 (19-2-29).

The Vikings hung tough with Albany in the early stages of game three, trailing 10-7 after an Amy Benz kill. However, Albany went on a 10-3 run to open up a 20-10 lead in claiming the win.

CSU hit .094 (40-29-117), while Albany was a scorching .387, committing just nine errors with 45 kills on 93 attempts. In addition, the Great Danes held advantages in digs (42-37), blocks (12-5), aces (6-5) and assists (39-34).