EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. – Gannon put together its best performance of the season on Friday evening and rolled to a 3-0 sweep (25-15, 25-14, 25-16) over Shepherd in the semifinal round of the PSAC Volleyball Tournament at Koehler Fieldhouse on the campus of East Stroudsburg University.
"Tonight's performance was as good as we've had all year," said Gannon head volleyball coach
Matt Darling. "Shepherd's a really good team that leads the country in blocks and we worked really hard not to fall into a match that blocking was going to make a difference in.
"We also passed well, our defense was absolutely incredible, our energy was great, our bench was maybe our MVP, and Sampson and McClung were really on tonight," Darling added.
Lauren Sampson (Hilliard, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson), the 2021 PSAC West Athlete of the Year, finished the match with 15 kills and hit a team-high .444 in the victory. Sampson had 15 kills and just three hitting errors on 27 total attacks during the match. She scored 15.5 points for the Golden Knights.
"There's not much you can say about Sampson's effort tonight," Darling commented. "That's a player of the year effort against the No. 2 team in the region. Actually, that's not a player of the year performance, that's an All-American performance."
With the win, Gannon pushes its current win streak to seven matches and improves to 28-5 overall on the season. The Golden Knights advance to Saturday's PSAC Championship and will face Clarion, the third seed in the PSAC West, for the conference's volleyball title. The match is set for 4 p.m. at Koehler Fieldhouse in East Stroudsburg. Clarion knocked off the PSAC East's top seed and tournament host in four sets on Friday during the nightcap, 25-19, 22-25, 25-20, 25-21.
Gannon and Clarion split a PSAC West home-and-home this season, with both teams winning on its home floor. Gannon defeated Clarion, 3-1, at the Hammermill Center on Oct. 2, while the Golden Eagles avenged the loss with a 3-0 sweep over the Knights at Tippin Gymnasium on Oct. 29.
As a team, Gannon hit .292 in the win over Shepherd on Friday with 43 kills compared to just 10 attack errors. The Knights also had a 4-3 advantage in service aces, a 67-51 advantage in digs, and an 8-5 edge in total blocks.
Shepherd entered the match ranked No. 1 in the country in both blocks per set (3.09) and total blocks (309.0). Shepherd's five blocks in Friday's semifinal game was its second-lowest total of the season behind the Rams' match at Millersville back on Nov. 13. Shepherd had just four total blocks against the Marauders.
In addition to Sampson's big day,
Ashley McClung (Charleston, W.Va./George Washington) also recorded double-digit kills with 10 in the win. McClung recorded just one attack error and hit .346 in the match. Gannon also got eight kills and two block solos from
Sam Deinek (South Lyon, Mich./South Lyon East) and six kills and two total blocks from
Ashley Kerestes (Loves Park, Ill./Rockford Lutheran).
A host of Golden Knights chipped in defensively in the win, led by 13 digs from setter
Ashley Beyers (Lanark, Ill./Eastland). The Golden Knights also got 11 digs from
Kenzie Lasher (Ford City, Pa./Armstrong), 10 from
Emma Hall (Lowell, Mich./Lowell), nine apiece from
Katie Becht (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster) and
Kirsten Leitshuh (Manhattan, Ill./Lincoln Way West High School), and six from McClung.
Beyers finished the match with a double-double as she also recorded a team-high 25 assists from her setter position. Hall also tallied six assists in the win.
Shepherd got a team-high 10 kills and eight digs from Mikaylah Hoy in the setback. Kiara Rakestraw also chipped in five kills and 11 digs. Claire Ellis finished the evening with 18 digs.
The Rams ranked second in the Atlantic Region Rankings this week and fell to 24-4 on the season following the loss. Gannon snapped Shepherd's six-match win streak with Friday's sweep.
