WHEELING, W.Va. – The second-seeded Gannon volleyball team rallied from a 2-set deficit on Thursday afternoon against East Stroudsburg to advance to Friday's Atlantic Regional semifinal round. Gannon won the final three sets of the match, including allowing just nine points in the final two sets to run away with the come-from-behind victory (20-25, 22-25, 25-16, 25-7, 15-2). With the win, Gannon improves to 29-6 on the season.
In Friday's semifinal round, the Golden Knights will meet sixth-seeded West Virginia State from the Mountain East Conference. The Yellow Jackets advanced with a 3-1 win over third-seeded Shepherd in Thursday's first quarterfinal match at the Alma Grace McDonough Center on the campus of Wheeling University this afternoon. Gannon and West Virginia State will meet for the ninth time on Friday evening, with Gannon holding a 7-1 all-time series lead.
Gannon's rally from a 2-0 deficit was its first since Sept. 2, 2016 against Cedarville.
Gannon had four players reach double figures in the win, led by
Ashley McClung (Charleston, W.Va./George Washington) with 17 kills and three blocks.
Ashley Kerestes (Loves Park, Ill./Rockford Lutheran) chipped in 13 kills and eight blocks, while
Madde Blake (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) gave the Knights a spark off the bench with 13 kills and five blocks.
Lauren Sampson (Hilliard, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson) also tallied 11 kills from her outside hitter position.
Ashley Beyers (Lanark, Ill./Eastland) guided the Gannon attack with 53 assists to go with 12 digs, three kills and three blocks – including the match-clinching kill in the fifth set.
Defensively, Gannon had four players with double-digit digs, led by
Emma Hall (Lowell, Mich./Lowell) with 27.
Katie Becht (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster) chipped in 13 digs, while Beyers and Sampson contributed 12 apiece. Gannon held an 86-68 advantage in digs during the win.
Gannon also had a 13-6 advantage in total blocks and held a 7-4 edge in service aces. Hall recorded four of Gannon's seven aces.
In set one it was all East Stroudsburg as the Warriors opened an 8-1 lead that later stretched to 11-3. Gannon would close the gap to just four points on three occasions at 16-12, 19-15 and 20-16, but each time the Warriors had an answer. ESU grabbed its first attempt at set-point with a 24-17 advantage late in the set but kills by Kerestes and Maggie Greefield and an ace by Kerestes allowed GU to close the gap to four once again. However, an ensuing GU attack error ended the set with ESU winning 25-20.
In set two Gannon opened up a 4-1 lead early, but the advantage was short lived as ESU scored four of the next five points to knot the set at five points apiece. The set would go back and forth until the teams hit double-digits, but with Gannon leading 11-9, the Warriors went on a momentum-swinging 9-0 run that made the score 18-11. The final four points of the stretch were aided by two Gannon attack errors and two GU ball-handling errors.
With ESU serving for set point at 24-19, the Golden Knights again wouldn't go away easily, as a kills by McClung and two attack error by the Warriors pulled Gannon within two points at 24-22. However, East Stroudsburg's Kaylee LoPresto put the set away with a kill that gave the Warriors a 25-22 set win and a 2-0 match advantage.
East Stroudsburg carried its momentum into set three and jumped out to an early 7-4 advantage following a service error and two attack errors by Gannon. But, from that point, Gannon turned the momentum with an 8-2 run that was keyed by three services aces and kills by Sampson, Blake and Greenfield.
The Warriors would take the lead back briefly after a 4-0 run that made the score 13-12, but Gannon answered with eight consecutive points to take control with a 20-13 lead in the set. Two blocks and three Blake kills keyed the stretch for the Golden Knights. GU would outscore East Stroudsburg 5-3 in the closing stages of the set to take the win and cut into ESU's early 2-0 advantage.
With ESU leading 2-1 entering the fourth set, Gannon took over by outscoring the Warriors 40-9 in the final two sets to complete the comeback win. In those final two sets, the Knights totaled 26 kills and just two errors on 55 total attacks, that included 10 kills and no attack errors in the decisive fifth set.
East Stroudsburg's season came to an end with an 18-11 record following the loss. The Warriors were led by 10 kills from LoPresto and nine kills from Sydney Stone in the setback. Stone also had a team-high 21 digs. Setter Ali Finch finished with a double-double with 27 assists and 13 digs.
NOTES: Gannon has now won its first round NCAA Tournament match in each of its last six tournament appearances … the Golden Knights improved to 17-3 all-time against East Stroudsburg with the victory, including three consecutive wins in the series … with the win, Gannon improves to 29-6 on the season … with a win in tomorrow's regional semifinal,
Matt Darling will reach the 350 win milestone as Gannon's head volleyball coach … it would also be Gannon's fifth 30-win season under Darling … with 13 kills in tonight's victory, senior middle blocker
Ashley Kerestes (Loves Park, Ill./Rockford Lutheran) needs just 19 more kills to become the 20
th player in GU volleyball history to surpass 1,000 career kills … with 27 digs in Thursday's win,
Emma Hall (Lowell, Mich./Lowell) moved into 10
th-place in single season digs with 478 this season.
