The Gannon women's volleyball team celebrates after beating Clarion in five sets to win the PSAC West regular-season title and the No. 1 seed for the PSAC Tournament.
Gannon Sports Information
The Gannon women's volleyball team celebrates after beating Clarion in five sets to win the PSAC West regular-season title and the No. 1 seed for the PSAC Tournament.
3
Winner Gannon Gannon 23-5,15-1 PSAC
2
Clarion Clar 24-3,14-2 PSAC
Winner
Gannon Gannon
23-5,15-1 PSAC
3
Final
2
Clarion Clar
24-3,14-2 PSAC
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
Gannon Gannon 25 25 13 23 15 (3)
Clarion Clar 14 12 25 25 9 (2)

Game Recap: Women's Volleyball | | Jeff Kirik, Assistant Director of Athletics for Media Relations

Volleyball team downs Clarion in 5 sets to claim PSAC West regular-season title and No. 1 seed

Golden Knights finish 15-1 in the PSAC West and will have home-court advantage next week

CLARION, PA – Coach Matt Darling and the Gannon University volleyball team knew it would be tough to beat a talented team like Clarion even after the Golden Knights won the first two sets on Saturday.

As they have all season, the Golden Knights showed grit by regrouping and winning the fifth set after the Golden Eagles had mounted a two-set comeback at Tippin Gymnasium. The result was a 25-14, 25-12, 13-25, 23-25, 15-9 victory that gave Gannon the PSAC West regular-season title and the No. 1 seed for next week's PSAC Tournament.

Gannon won its 11th match in a row and its 17th in the past 18 matches as the Golden Knights finished the regular season 23-5 and placed first in the PSAC West with a 15-1 mark. Saturday's victory was also critical because Clarion had swept Gannon in their first matchup at Highmark Events Center. That was Gannon's only loss in the past 18 matches.

Clarion dropped to 24-3 and 14-2. The Golden Eagles will be the No. 2 seed in the tournament.

Clarion entered the match ranked No. 1 in the Atlantic Region, while Gannon was No. 3.

The Knights will play fourth-seeded Edinboro in the quarterfinals on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Highmark Events Center. If Gannon wins that match, it will host the PSAC Final Four on Saturday, Nov. 12, and the Championship on Sunday, Nov. 13.

Gannon has seen a series of different players step up in key situations all season. On Saturday, the spotlight went to sophomore right side Hailey Koch (Littleton, Col./Dakota Ridge), junior right side Makenna Gavin (Pittsburgh, Pa./Avonworth), and sophomore setter Marta Roicka (Warsaw, Poland/North Central Texas Academy).

Koch recorded a career-high 19 kills and .586 hitting percentage, 21 points and four blocks. Gavin added nine kills, a .389 hitting percentage, 11.5 points and four blocks. Roicka got her most extensive playing time of the season and collected season highs of 17 assists and seven digs. She also served match point when Madde Blake (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) and Maggie Greenfield (Woodstock, Ontario/Woodstock Collegiate Institute) combined for the deciding block.

Sophomore outside hitter Sam Deinek (South Lyon, Mich./South Lyon East) added 10 kills, freshman setter Bengisu Arslan (Ankara, Turkey) recorded 27 assists, and sophomore libero had a team-high 22 digs. Greenfield had a superb defensive game with eight total blocks (2 solo and 6 block assists).

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