Box Score

ERIE, Pa. - The Gannon women's volleyball team moved into a tie for first place in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Western Division Friday night with a 3-0 win over Clarion. 

The Golden Eagles entered Friday's contest with a hold on first-place in the division with a 10-1 record. The win for Gannon, coupled with a California loss to Mercyhurst (3-2) vaulted the Lady Knights into a first-place tie with Clarion, now each with identical 10-2 records. 

The Golden Eagles managed to hold Lauren Sazama (St. Louis, Mo. / Oakville) to under 10 kills for just the fourth time this season, but the senior still managed to record a match-high nine kills. The defensive tone of the match didn't allow a player from either squad to reach double-digits in kills. 

Alternatively, the Lady Knights managed to stop Clarion's Rebecca Webb, who entered the match ranked 17th in the nation in hitting percentage (.374). Gannon limited the senior to just one kill and a -.222 hitting percentage. 

“Obviously we are very happy with a conference win on the road,” said head coach Matt Darling. “PSAC road wins are hard to come by and Clarion is always tough. In tonight's match we made it our top priority to defend against their top middle; and even tho our offensive numbers aren't what they usually are, I couldn't be more pleased with how well the entire team followed the game plan. This is a great win.”

The first set was back-and-forth before Gannon went on a 7-1 run to jump out to the 1-0 lead. An ace from Sazama and blocks from Emily Carver (Stow, Ohio / Theodore Roosevelt) and Kayla Knickerbocker (Richland, Mich. / Gull Lake) assisted during the stretch. 

Another big run propelled the Lady Knights during the second set, again behind the serve of Sazama. The senior's serve forced the Golden Eagles into six attack errors and two ball handling errors, allowing the Lady Knights to put together 12-1 run before closing out the set by a 25-11 final score. 

It was more of the same in the third set as the Lady Knights were able to put away Clarion 25-18 following a late 7-1 spurt. Again, Sazama's serve provided troubles for the Golden Eagles as the senior served five straight times, inducing two more Clarion errors to go along with her third ace of the night. 

Morgan Reineke (New Knoxville, Ohio / New Knoxville) finished second in kills with nine, while Carver totaled six. Sarah Glancy (Walled Lake, Mich. / Walled Lake Central) added five block assists, three kills and two digs. Taryn Graham (Huron, Ohio / Huron) led the team with 13 digs.  

For Clarion, Emily Stewart and Carlie Bieranowski each totaled seven kills. Gannon improved to 18-4 overall with a 10-2 mark in conference. Clarion fell to 20-5 this season, also holding a 10-2 mark in the PSAC. 

Gannon will continue the road trip tomorrow with a 2 p.m. meeting with Slippery Rock. “Slippery Rock is a good team and we're still on the road, so we need to be sharp tomorrow,” continued Darling.