Final issue of vol.15

The Cleveland Stater newsroom.

"GONE FISHING" (after finals week).

Look for more updates after Winter Break. See you around.

From,
John Cuturic

Volleyball ends season in Milwaukee

The Cleveland State University volleyball team ended their season Nov. 23, falling in the Horizon League semifinals to the UW Milwaukee Panthers.

The team’s semifinal performance finishes off a 16-13 season, where the Vikings saw both a 5-game winning streak and a 6-game losing streak.

The Vikings ended the regular season by beating Milwaukee 3-2, with double-doubles for senior Kerry Winchester and junior Maggie Hannon. But the Vikings fell a few kills short in their playoff match. The scores of the first three sets: Milwaukee 25-23, Milwaukee 25-21 and Cleveland State 25-23. 

A big story for the volleyball team is the loss of star outside hitter Kara Koch, who graduated after last season. The team had 1,558 kills last season, and 1,487 this time around. Koch scored 500 in her senior year.

The Vikings’ offensive leader this year was freshman Grace Kauth with 305 kills. Hannon took 297 and made the All-Horizon-League Team. Winchester scored 233 kills--along with Annie Djukic, she played her last season this year.

Going forward, the Vikings’ offensive hopes have a lot to do with Kauth, who made the Horizon League All-Freshman team this season, and sophomore Christina Toth. Toth scored 231 kills this season.

On the defensive side, sophomore Nikki Holmes posted a team-high 495 digs, good for about 4 and a half per set.

The team will lose Djukic and Winchester next season, but fans saw some strong performances from underclassmen this time out.

“Next season promises to be an exciting one as we return the majority of our team,” said Vikings coach Chuck Voss. “Everyone is excited for the future.”

Who knows if we’ll get back to 23-7 next year -- but we’re definitely going to have a team to look forward to.

Former Vikings goalie Brad Stuver drafted to pros

The Columbus Crew, a major-league soccer team, has selected former Cleveland State University goalkeeper Brad Stuver in the 2013 MLS Waiver Draft.

Stuver, a Cleveland State graduate from Twinsburg Ohio, spent the 2013 season as a pool goalkeeper. This means that an MLS team in “extreme hardship” which had lost some of its goalkeepers could call Stuver up as a replacement. Stuver was on the gameday roster for four different teams last season, but he hasn’t yet made his MLS debut.

The Montreal Impact drafted Stuver in the second round of the 2013 MLS Super Draft, but because of the Waiver Draft he wound up on the Columbus Crew, where he will join Matt Lampson and Daniel Withrow at goalkeeper.

As a goalie at Cleveland State University, Stuver got a 33-27-7 record. In his senior year, the Vikings’ record was 11-6-3, with Stuver as starting goalkeeper. Stuver allowed, on average, about 0.86 goals (or about 86 hundredths of a goal) per game. He saved about 80 percent of the shots that came at him.

The Vikings won that year’s Horizon League championship. Stuver was Horizon League MVP, and made the All-League team. That season also saw the Vikings’ first return to the NCAA tournament since 1980.

Cleveland State’s Tumblr page quotes Stuver as saying, “To play at the next level would be awesome. I’ve been playing soccer almost my whole life.”

The coach of the Vikings soccer team, Ali Kazemaini, said, "For us to continue to build [the CSU] program, we need to recruit players that can advance to the professional ranks. Of course, it's great to see that happening now with Brad and Josh Williams."

Coach Kazemaini said the team wishes Stuver the best."[He's] just a local kid that loves his hometown," Kazemaini said. "He has great tools, and he's just realizing how good he can be."

Supporters come from out of town to cheer away teams

Coming soon on clevelandstater.com:

Go to any Cleveland State University sporting event, and you can hear the crowd cheering for the home team.

You can also hear a loud minority in the crowd cheering for the away team.

It’s easy to tell them apart -- they’re wearing school colors, cheering for the wrong team, and typically very loud and passionate. In fact, I noticed this semester it’s not that uncommon for the “away team” fans to out-cheer Cleveland State fans at home games.

These people are parents, friends, and former coaches who are traveling with the team. I talked with some of them to find out where they came from.

Denise Podolsky came from Canfield, Ohio, a city near Youngstown, to a Cleveland State women’s soccer game. She came to support Youngstown State University. Podolsky sat in the stands at Krenzler Field in a bright red jacket, cheering, “Let’s go, Youngstown!”

She had come to the game to support her daughter Jackie, a junior who plays goalie for Youngstown State. Podolsky said she’s gone to every game Jackie has played in since her freshman year.

“It helps [athletes] a lot, knowing they have family there to support them,” Podolsky said. “It also helps the other girls on the team, knowing they have people there to support them.”
Podolsky said she would go to Milwaukee for Youngstown State’s final game of the season -- about a 7-hour drive from Youngstown. She said that’s the farthest that she’ll have to go this season.

There is some science behind the idea that social support can help athletes perform better. Tim Rees, a professor in the Sport and Health Sciences program at the University of Exeter, worked with some other Exeter professors to research how social support affected high-level golfers. They found that receiving support increased an athlete’s performance.

“In this study, received social support aided performance, regardless of the amount of stress,” Rees wrote.

Of course, that has to do with more than just cheering -- in fact, as professor Kimberly Epting at Eton University found when studying the effects of cheers and boos on sports performance, in sports like golf where athletes are used to silence, cheers can harm their swing just as much as boos.

Still, athletes who receive more support from people in their social networks -- such as the friends and family members who drive out to away games to watch them -- tend to do better.

Clay Schultz and Debbie Schultz, another married couple, came out to Woodling Gym to watch their daughter Sierra play for the Oakland University volleyball team. They came to Ohio from Highland, Mich. to watch the game.

Clay Schultz said that he recognized a lot of faces that he saw, going around watching Sierra play.

“It’s a lot of fun to watch her play people she used to play in club, when she was in high school,” he said.

In fact, he said that a player on the Vikings team, Maggie Hannon, played on the same club team as Sierra in high school. Debbie Schultz said that she hoped to get a picture of Sierra and Maggie Hannon together after the game.

Also at the Youngstown State University soccer game were Chuck and Judy Riese, a married couple who came to watch their granddaughter, Macey Riese. They said that they come out to all the games they can make it to -- they came to Ohio that day, even though they live in Wisconsin.

But Judy Riese said that they didn’t have a hard drive up.

“We’re so used to doing it that it’s like the car is on automatic pilot,” she said.

The Rieses have watched their granddaughter play soccer since she was a child. They saw her in high school, and now in college. Judy Riese said that they have gone as far as Buffalo, N.Y. to watch their granddaughter play.

“We’re really happy for her, that all her hard work paid off,” Judy Riese said.

Men's soccer team withdraws from tournament

Coming soon to clevelandstater.com:

We won our first playoff game 2-1 in the freezing cold, but Wright State University are the ones who will be moving on in the Horizon League tournament.

The Cleveland State University men's soccer team withdrew from the tournament last week, according to a release by the athletic department. The release said that one of the players the Vikings used against Wright State last Tuesday was not eligible to play. 

The player should have sat out for a game after receiving five yellow cards. The athletic department's release said that it was an honest mistake, and included apologies from athletic director John Parry and men's soccer coach Ali Kazemaini.

Parry said, "I apologize to all Horizon League members who have been affected by this in the past and future."

The athletic department did not release the name of the player who was ineligible. But according to the men's soccer statistics on csuvikings.com, the athletic department's official website, the only men's soccer player with more than four yellow cards was Mike Derezic, a junior midfielder from Lakewood.

Derezic, who scored an assist against Wright State last Tuesday, finished the season with 7 yellow cards.

If playing Derezic was the Vikings' mistake, then the violation probably occurred in a different game against Wright State, on Wednesday, Oct. 30, and not during the tournament game last Tuesday. Derezic played against Wright State on Oct. 30 after receiving his fifth yellow card of the season the game before.

But the athletic department's release suggests the violation occurred against Wright State on Tuesday. Whatever the case, we know one thing for sure -- the Vikings are out of the Horizon League tournament.

"It's unfortunate that our season has to end like this," Coach Kazemaini said. "It's a shame we are not able to defend our league championship, but we will learn from this and come back stronger."

The release didn't say how the team made the mistake. The Cleveland Stater contacted the athletic PR department, who said the soccer team had no comment other than the official release.

The men's soccer team played a good game against Wright State last Tuesday. The temperature danced around 30 degrees all night, and it felt colder than that with wind blowing. The crowd wrapped up in coats and blankets. The concession stand made a killing selling hot chocolate. The players from both teams went onto the field in shorts.

The Vikings pressured early and scored early, when midfielder Sergio Manesio punched the ball in off of a corner kick. The Wright State Raiders would answer the goal about 7 minutes later, off a kick after a Vikings foul. The starting goalie for Cleveland State, Nick Ciraldo, left the game with an injury, replaced by Austin Saini in goal.

James Howe regained the lead for the Vikings with about 30 minutes remaining in the second half. He got the ball up to the right corner of the goal box, then shot at an angle past the goalie, into the back left corner of the net.

Toward the end of the second half, Saini made a critical save. With 24 minutes remaining in the game, he blocked a shot from a Wright State attacker who had gotten past the defense. That gave Wright State a corner kick, which Saini jumped and grabbed out of the air. Saini and the Vikings defense blocked attack after Raiders attack toward the end of the game.

Despite the hard-fought win, the Vikings season has come to an end. The Vikings' final record is 8-12 overall, without a single draw all season. Last year, during their Horizon League championship run, they posted an 11-6-3 record. The change from 3 losses last season to 12 losses this season looks bad for the soccer team.

On the other hand, because of the rule-breaking and withdrawal, the Vikings didn't get a chance to protect their championship. It's hard to say now what might have happened.

But I think it's safe to say this: we know one mistake that the men's soccer team won't be making next year.

My comments:

*You can see the statistics for the Cleveland State men's soccer team, including yellow cards, here.

*The UIC team beat Wright State in Chicago a few days ago (Nov. 16). The UIC Flames won 1-0 in overtime, and they will be playing the UWM Panthers for the championship.

*The Vikings played a very good game against Wright State. It's a shame that we didn't get to keep the win.

Fenn college of engineering plans name change

Coming soon to clevelandstater.com:

Cleveland State University recently received a $10 million gift from The Parker Hannifin Foundation and Donald and Pamela Washkewicz.

"We tremendously grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Washkewicz and the Parker Hannifin Foundation for their exceptional generosity," Berkman said in an email.

The university announced the donation in an email two days ago, on Nov. 19. Donald Washkewicz, a Cleveland State graduate, is Chairman of the Board, CEO and president of Parker Hannifin.

To recognize the $10 million donation, the Cleveland State board of trustees voted to rename the Fenn College of Engineering at Cleveland State. They're going to change the name to the the Washkewicz College of Engineering.Stillwell Hall, the engineering building, will change its name to Fenn Hall.

In the email release, the president's office said that they intend to use the money from the donation for renovations and improvements to Stillwell Hall (soon to be Fenn Hall).
Among other things, the University will build a new entrance, add classroom space and open two new laboratories in the College of Engineering.

The release also said that the gift will allow Cleveland State to award more scholarships.

My comments:

*We didn't have a lot of time to pursue this story, this issue. I think there will be more in-depth information in the next issue of the Stater.

*The title of the web page has already changed to Washkewicz College of Engineering, but the headers and most of the other pages on the engineering website (example) still say "Fenn College of Engineering." This is as of Nov. 21, 2013.

NCAA graduation success rates: A chart

 

 Notes:

*Eight CSU teams (out of 17 overall) beat the national average of 82.

*The overall graduation success rate for all CSU athletes was exactly 82.

*The men's average was 81.14 percent, with seven teams reporting. Women's average was 85.22 percent, with 10 teams reporting.

*Not pictured in this graph: Christine Moeller, associate director of athletics for student affairs, said that the department was proud of its academic progress rates. The last data available for these rates was for students graduating in 2011-12. Cleveland State's women's tennis, women's cross country, men's basketball, and men's and women's fencing all scored in the top 10 percent nationwide.

CSU athletes show strong graduation success rates

Here's my Stater story for this week, soon to be up on clevelandstater.com:

The NCAA released graduation success rate data for student athletes who entered school from 2003 to 2006, and Cleveland State University athletes made a strong showing overall.

The graduation success rate is a metric of all student athletes who either receive athletic scholarships or were actively recruited by a coach. It counts the number of student athletes who graduate within six years, or transfer to another school in good academic standing.

Four Cleveland State teams had 100 percent graduation success rates -- men’s and women’s golf, women’s track, and women’s volleyball. Most of Cleveland State’s teams scored higher than the national average, 82 percent.

Cleveland State’s athletic director John Parry said that coaches work hard to find recruits who are good students. Cleveland State’s athletic department can’t afford to give out many full-ride scholarships, so they look for recruits who can also get merit-based scholarships from the university.

“One of the challenges is to find players who are strong enough academically, and who also can play,” Parry said. “You can’t separate them. You can’t say ‘This is a great player. He doesn’t know where the class is, but he’s a great player,’ or, ‘This is a great student, but he can’t dribble.’

Parry also said that the athletics advisors aim to do what the department calls “intrusive advising.” Mark Gefert, an academic advisor with the department, said that athletic advisors have complete control over student-athletes’ academic records.

“We put a flag on student accounts,” Gefert said. “They have to see an advisor to register or add-drop [add or drop a class].”

He said that the athletic advisors have to keep student-athletes on track to graduate. They aim for students to graduate in four or five years.

“As a student-athlete, you have to be on track to graduate, or you can’t compete,” Gefert said.

He said that student-athletes can be in practice for as much as 20 hours in a week, the NCAA maximum amount of practice time. Gefert said that if students will spend 20 hours a week getting better at their sport, they should spend at least 20 hours studying, too.

“Whenever I talk to recruits, the biggest thing I tell them is to not underestimate the amount of work it’s going to take to be successful,” he said.

Parry said that short of students leaving to pursue professional careers, the athletic department’s goal is to have 100 percent graduation success rates across the board.

Maureen Forinash, a student-athlete on the women’s fencing team, will graduate next fall with a degree in Special Education. Forinash said that being a student athlete has helped her on the way to graduation.

“It’s helped me to prioritize my time better. I don’t procrastinate as much, because I don’t have time to,” Forinash said. “I have to get things done when I have the time.”

Some of Cleveland State’s teams fell below the national average. Most notably, the women’s fencing and women’s soccer teams had graduation success rates of 50 percent and 69 percent respectively.

Christine Moeller, associate director of athletics for student affairs, said that because graduation success rate only counts students with athletic scholarships or who were actively recruited, only four athletes from the women’s fencing team went into that number, skewing the results.

Moeller said that it’s happened with men’s fencing and tennis in the past. Two of the women’s fencing students graduated, and the other two might have dropped to being part-time students or transferred universities with a low GPA.

As for the women’s soccer team, Moeller said that it’s a very young program, and that that number also could have gotten slightly skewed. She predicted that the number would go up the next time the NCAA reported success rates.

Moeller said that Cleveland State has performed very well in the NCAA’s measure of academic progress, the academic progress rate (APR). She said that because of that, we should expect graduation success rates to go up in the future.

“We’re pretty happy with our GSR [graduation success rates],” Moeller said. “But more, we’re very proud of our APR, and they go hand in hand.”

I had to go around for a while before someone would explain the low scores for women's fencing and soccer. Cleveland State hasn't had many athletes on the women's fencing team in the past -- this is the first year in a long time that we've had a full women's fencing team. I'll update with a graph of Cleveland State's scores later.

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