Erie, Pa. - The Gannon women's volleyball team opened Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) action with a pair of wins at the PSAC East/West Crossover at the Hammermill Center on Friday. The host Lady Knights captured a 3-0 win over the Cheyney Wolves to open the event with set scores of 25-8, 25-12 and 25-5. In the final match of the evening, Gannon and West Chester battled to four sets with the Lady Knights taking a 3-1 decision over the Golden Rams with set scores of 25-19, 25-27, 25-11 and 25-21. The two wins preserved the Lady Knights win streak at home, moving it to 18 home games at the Hammermill Center. The Lady Knights improved to 7-4 overall and 2-0 in the PSAC.
"We're really happy to pick up two conference wins to start the PSAC season. We certainly weren't perfect tonight but were good enough to pick two wins including one against a West Chester team that played really hard and gave us all we could handle," said head coach
Matt Darling. "Finally, I thought our effort was excellent even when weren't playing perfectly we played hard and sometimes you just have grind out a win."
To open the PSAC East West Crossover, Gannon opened against Cheyney. The Wolves entered the match on a two-game win streak. On Sept. 21, the Wolves defeated Shaw University for their first win over an NCAA Division II opponent in over 20 years. The win would clinch the entire team the PSAC Women's Volleyball Player of the Week honor, a first in conference history. With a win over Lincoln on Sept. 25, the Wolves will finish the season with their first multi-win season since 1995.
For Gannon, they faced a team with new breath. The Wolves opened the contest with a 5-1 lead in the first set. The Lady Knights answered back with four straight to tie the contest at five off a pair of kills by junior
Emily Meyer (Wexford, Pa. / North Allegheny). The two teams battled for control of the set in the next points. Once Gannon took a 9-8 lead, the Lady Knights scored the next 16 points to take the opening set by the score of 25-8.
With the score tied 4-4 in the second set, the Lady Knights went on a 9-3 run to take a 13-7 lead. After three points by Cheyney, the Lady Knights scored six straight to increase their lead to 19-10.Holding the Wolves to two points, Gannon tallied six points to the seal the win including two service aces by sophomore
Kayla Knickerbocker (Richland, Mich. / Gull Lake).
The third and final set of the match displayed Gannon's ability to dominate on offense with runs of 10 points and 12 points against Cheyney. After Cheyney scored the opening point of the set, Gannon ripped off 10 points before the Wolves scored on a Lady Knights' bad set. Gannon would strike again for 12 straight before Cheyney stopped the streak with a kill. Cheney picked up three straight before Gannon finished off the Wolves for a 25-5 win.
Freshman
Hannah Kren (Waukesha, Wisc. / Wisconsin Lutheran) posted 11 kills and a hitting percentage of .533. Junior
Megan Wendel (Aurora, Ohio / Kenston) tallied 35 assists along with five digs. Knickerbocker compiled seven kills including six service aces.
In the second match of the day, the Edinboro Fighting Scots snapped the West Chester Golden Rams' nine-game win streak with a 3-1 win. Edinboro win the first two sets 25-23 before West Chester fought back with a 25-23 win in the third set. The Fighting Scots sealed the win with a 25-9 win over the Golden Rams.
Edinboro remained perfect on the day with a sweep of Cheyney, 3-0. The Fighting Scots opened with a 25-11 win in the first set before Cheyney fought back in the final two sets. The Fighting Scots sealed the win with 25-16 and 25-18 scores in the final two sets to move to 9-5 overall and 2-0 in the PSAC.
Gannon had its biggest challenge against West Chester, who was looking to get back on the winning track. With 25 total score changes and 11 lead changes, the battle raged between the two.
After a 25-19 win in the opening set, the Lady Knights and Golden Rams forced the second set to extra points. The second set featured 12 tied scores and five lead changes. Trailing 23-20, the Lady Knights managed to the tie the set at 25 all before the Golden Rams sealed it with two straight for a 27-25 win.
In the third set, the Lady Knights roared back from the loss with a 10-2 to open the set. Despite the Golden Rams' fight, the Lady Knights continued pour it on until the final point in a 25-11 win.
Facing a four-point deficit, the Lady Knights erased the Golden Rams' 10-6 lead in the fourth set. The two teams fought to take position of the deciding set until the Lady Knights took control late with a 20-19 lead. The Lady Knights would hand the Golden Rams their second loss of the day with a 25-21 win in the fourth set.
The Lady Knights had four individuals reach double digits in kills. Kren led all Lady Knights with 12 followed by junior
Emily Carver (Stow, Ohio / Theodore Roosevelt) and sophomore
Lynne Hibbard (West Barnstable, Mass. / Barnstable) with 11 and freshman
Jordyn Thiery (Cincinnati, Ohio / Notre Dame –Cathedral Latin) with 10. Wendel collected 37 assists and 10 digs.
"
Lynne Hibbard had a terrific night and continued to come up with points everytime we needed them," said Darling. "
Megan Wendel had a good match setting, keeping all our hitters involved."
Host Gannon returns to action at day two of the PSAC East/West Crossover at the Hammermill Center. The Lady Knights face East Stroudsburg to open the day of competition at 10 a.m.
