The Gannon University women's soccer team had a lot of reasons to celebrate after their 3-1 comeback win over Mercyhurst on Wednesday.

The Golden Knights clinched first place in the regular season in the PSAC West.

They also earned the No. 1 playoff seed for the Western Division and homefield advantage throughout the PSAC Tournament for as long as they stay in contention.

Finally, Gannon completed a regular-season sweep of its archrival.

The Golden Knights battled through rainy, windy conditions at McConnell Family Stadium as they dominated the second half with three goals after trailing 1-0 at the half.

Needing a win or a tie to secure first place, Gannon got the victory to improve to 11-2-4 overall and 10-1-4 in the PSAC West as it raised its division-leading point total to 34.

Second-place Mercyhurst, which has 28 points in the standings, dropped to 9-5-4 and 8-4-4 in the PSAC West in its regular-season finale.

The game was a showdown of two teams ranked in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional rankings. Gannon was No. 6, and Mercyhurst was No. 8 in the rankings that were released on Wednesday afternoon.

Ella Fadale (Brockport, N.Y./Brockport) and Sarah Fails (Girard, Pa./Villa Maria) scored less than 30 seconds apart in the second half early in the second half to give Gannon the lead for good.

Fadale scored on a header in traffic off a corner kick from Gabby Boden (Butler, Pa./Butler) at the 58:29 mark.

Only 29 seconds later, Logan Nicklas (Allison Park, Pa./Hampton) was fouled on a run through the right side of the box. Fails took the ensuing penalty kick and buried it in the middle of the net over a diving Mercyhurst goalie. It was her team-leading 10th goal of the season, which leads the PSAC West.

The game stayed 2-1 until the final seconds when Mercyhurst pulled its goalie, and Fails launched a long kick toward the open Mercyhurst net. A Lakers player ran the ball down just as it was about to cross the goal line and tried to clear it but instead deflected it into the net with six seconds left.

Mercyhurst looked solid in the first half as the Lakers took a 1-0 lead when Madison Hoover scored off a crossing pass from Teagan Mehalko.

Mercyhurst outshot GU 6-2 and had a 4-1 edge in shots on goal in the first half.

The second half was a completely different game. Gannon outshot Mercyhurst 9-2 and had a 3-0 advantage in shots on goal in the second half.

GU's Kennedy Solymosi (Eastlake, Ohio/Lake Catholic) played the full 90 minutes in goal and made three saves for the win. She also played aggressively outside of the box, taking away several developing scoring threats.

Gannon will close the regular season with its PSAC West finale on Saturday at 5 p.m. when it hosts Pitt-Johnstown. The Golden Knights will host a PSAC Tournament quarterfinal on Tuesday. If they win that game, they will then host the semifinals and finals.