The Clarion University women's volleyball team showed why it was the coaches' preseason favorite in the PSAC West.

Clarion put its hitting and defensive skills on full display on Friday night as it swept Gannon in a showdown for first place in front of a crowd of 502 at the Highmark Events Center.

Gannon stayed close in the first two sets, losing 25-22 and 25-23, before Clarion pulled away for a clinching 25-14 win in the third set.

Clarion improved to 17-1 overall and moved into sole possession of first place at 7-0 in the PSAC West. The Golden Knights dropped into second place as they fell to 6-1 in the PSAC West and 12-5 overall.

"Everybody knows how good Clarion is," Gannon coach Matt Darling said. "In my opinion, they're the best team in the region and maybe the best team that we've seen in the region in a long, long time … They dominated us in every single facet of the match, and they provide the baseline for us to figure out how to get better."

Gannon will turn its attention to another big match on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Knights will host third place Indiana (Pa.) at 2 p.m.

"In the locker room, I said, 'I have nothing else to say about tonight. We got beat by a better team. We're moving on.' We talked about IUP – 100 percent of the contents of our postgame conversation was about IUP. We're done with this," Darling said.

Gannon challenged Clarion in the first two sets, but the Golden Eagles seemed to deliver clutch digs at key moments, keeping points alive so hitters Cassidy Snider and Amy Regrut could put away spikes. Snider, an outside hitter, finished with a match-best 14 kills, and Regrut had 12.

Senior middle blocker Maggie Greenfield (Woodstock, Ontario/Woodstock Collegiate Institute) led Gannon with 10 kills, while junior outside hitter Madde Blake (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) and sophomore right side Hailey Koch (Littleton, Col./Dakota Ridge) added nine kills each. Freshman Bengisu Arslan (Ankara, Turkey) had a team-best 30 assists, and Blake led Gannon with 14 digs.

Clarion's defensive prowess also showed in blocking as the Golden Eagles had five solo blocks and 12 block assists, while Gannon had just one block.