ERIE, Pa. – Gannon hit .322 with just eight errors in a convincing 3-0 win over Pitt-Johnstown (25-14, 25-19, 25-16) on Friday evening inside the Hammermill Center. The Golden Knights improved to 14-2 on the season and stretched their win streak to five matches with the win.
Gannon also snapped Pitt-Johnstown's nine-match winning streak, as the Mountain Cats fell to 9-2 overall and 2-1 in the league following the loss.
"It always feels good to get a win over a team that is playing really well," said Gannon head volleyball coach
Matt Darling following Friday night's victory. "We grabbed momentum early by playing a very clean first set. The second set was very competitive as UPJ stepped up their game on offense, and they further compounded us with some shots in the third, but we were able to put it away at the end.
"I thought the second and third sets were very competitive, and I told the team that this is exactly what we want, we want to be pushed so we can figure out what our next level is going to be."
Gannon had a balanced attack with three players reaching double-figure kills in the win.
Lauren Sampson (Hilliard, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson) finished with 13 kills and two block assists,
Sam Deinek (South Lyon, Mich./South Lyon East) chipped in 11 kills to go with 13 digs and a block, and
Ashley McClung (Charleston, W.Va./George Washington) drove home 10 kills and two block assists. The trio combined for just six errors in the match.
Deinek drove home 11 kills on 30 total attacks while not committing an error on the evening.
"I thought our outside hitters did a great job limiting our errors tonight," Darling said. "We are typically a low-error team, but I thought tonight was an extraordinarily low error total for us."
Ashley Kerestes (Loves Park, Ill./Rockford Lutheran) also had a solid outing for the Gannon offense with seven kills and three block assists. She finished the match with just one error and hit .462 on the evening.
Maggie Greenfield (Woodstock, Ontario/Woodstock Collegiate Institute) also finished with five kills and three block assists.
In addition to Deinek's double-double with 13 digs;
Emma Hall (Lowell, Mich./Lowell) (14),
Ashley Beyers (Lanark, Ill./Eastland) (11),
Valeria Torres (Gurabo, Puerto Rico/Notre Dame) (11) and
Kenzie Lasher (Ford City, Pa./Armstrong) (10) also notched double-figure digs in the win for the Golden Knights.
Beyers also passed out 39 assists to lead Gannon on the attack.
Gannon won the match by set scores of 25-14, 25-19 and 25-16.
With the score tied 14-14 following a Gannon service error in the third set, the Golden Knights took over by scoring 11 of the next 13 points to run away with the win. Torres provided three points as Gannon's server during the stretch, while Hall served the final seven points of the set to wrap up the GU win. The final seven points were courtesy of three Sampson kills, two Kerestes kills and a pair of aces by Hall.
Grace Miller led UPJ with 10 kills. Erin Carmody finished with 21 digs for the Mountain Cats, while Adiamar Beaz passed out 30 assists. Pitt-Johnstown hit just .152 in the setback.
Gannon will have a quick turnaround with a 2 p.m. matchup against Clarion on Saturday afternoon. Clarion picked up a 3-0 win over Mercyhurst this evening (25-20, 25-20, 25-17). The Golden Eagles are now 10-5 on the season, including 2-1 in PSAC play.
"We are excited about another big match tomorrow. There are no easy pick'ems here in the next few days and we are looking forward to it," Darling stated.
