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ERIE, Pa. -  The Gannon volleyball team fell 3-1 to California (Pa.) by scores of 21-25, 25-14, 25-17 and 25-23 Friday night as the two squads picked to finish first and second in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Western Division squared off to open divisional play. 

The Lady Knights stormed back to win the opening set, scoring the final six points to take an early lead with a 25-21 win in the first frame. However, the momentum swung back to the Vulcans as California (Pa.) took the second (25-14) and third (25-17) sets. Gannon battled back in the fourth set, but eventually lost a late lead to the Vulcans who took home the 3-1 win following a 25-23 fourth-set win. 

In front of a large home crowd, the Lady Knights opened the match with a 6-2 run thanks to kills from Lauren Sazama (St. Louis, Mo. / Oakville) and Megan Wendel (Aurora, Ohio / Kenston). Sazama and Sarah Glancy (Walled Lake, Mich. / Walled Lake Central) also teamed up for two blocks during the spurt. 

California (Pa.) eventually evened things up, as the score tied nine times over a span of 10 points. With the score tied at 19, Cal tallied back-to-back points, forcing a Gannon time out. Following the break, Gannon energized the crowd with consecutive kills from Sazama and two errors from the Vulcans. California was forced to take a time out trailing 23-21, but Gannnon finished out the set fittingly with another kill from Sazama.

The senior put up gaudy numbers during the first set, totaling 10 kills, two blocks, two assists and a .714 hitting percentage. She accounted for two-thirds of Gannon's kills during the frame. 

However, the Vulcans didn't take kindly to Gannon's comeback effort, storming through the second and third sets. The Lady Knights committed 21 combined errors in the two frames, finishing with hitting percentages of .000 or below to fall behind 2-1.

Gannon regrouped for the fourth set, rolling out to a 10-5 lead thanks in part to a pair of kills from Morgan Reineke (New Knoxville, Ohio / New Knoxville). Gannon held an 18-12 lead  before California (Pa.) slowly built its comeback effort. The Vulcans recorded back-to-back points before putting together a 6-1 run that saw the Gannon lead dwindle to just 21-20.

Kayla Knickerbocker (Richland, Mich. / Gull Lake) gave Gannon a sideout with a kill before Cal added a pair of points to tie the score at 22. Gannon added one more kill from Lynne Hibbard (West Barnstable, Mass. / West Barnstable) but the Vulcans finished out the match with back-to-back kills from Ana Almeida and Meghan Franz. 

Sazama racked up 21 kills during the match with 10 digs, three block assists and one solo block. Reineke was the only other Lady Knight to reach double digits with 10 kills. Taryn Graham (Huron, Ohio / Huron) finished with 20 digs while Wendel dished out 31 assists to go along with a career-best seven kills. 

Gannon hit just .140 in the match compared to .201 for the Vulcans. Offensively, Gannon committed 28 attack errors thanks in part to six total blocks from Cal. The Vulcans were led by Brandy Harris and Meghan Franz who finished with 14 and 12 kills respectively. 

The Lady Knights fell to 12-3 overall and 4-1 in conference with the loss. Cal improved to 14-2 overall and 4-0 in PSAC play. Gannon returns to action tomorrow afternoon with a 2 p.m. meeting with Indiana (Pa.) at the Hammermill Center.