Nov. 9, 2007
SHIPPENSBURG - The Clarion University women's volleyball team used a balanced effort to knock off West Chester 3-1 (30-25, 25-30, 30-26, 30-18) in the opening round of the 2007 PSAC Women's Volleyball Playoffs Friday afternoon at Shippensburg.
The Golden Eagles (26-4), the second seed from the PSAC-West, will now take on the top seed from the PSAC-East Shippensburg (30-10) in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. tonight (Friday). The winner of that match will advance to Saturday's PSAC Championship match against the winner of the other semifinal between California and Edinboro.
It is Clarion's first PSAC semifinal appearance since losing 3-1 to Shippensburg in the 1990 semifinals.
Christina Steiner (15), Sarah Fries (15) and Amanda Angermeier (13) all had double-digit kills for Clarion, while Kristi Fiorillo, the top setter statistically in the PSAC, continued her solid season with 49 set assists while adding 22 digs. Steiner chipped in with 18 digs, while Fries had 14 and four blocks. Vicky Gentile, the all-time leading digger in school history, led the defense with 27 digs.
Tressa Dvorsky added seven kills and two blocks for the Golden Eagles, while Nicole Andrusz had five kills and three blocks.
It is Clarion's first postseason win since beating West Chester 3-0 in the 1990 PSAC consolation game. It is Clarion's first opening-round postseason win since knocking off East Stroudsburg 3-0 in the 1989 PSAC semifinals.
The first game against West Chester was tight throughout with Clarion using a -0 closing run to take the 30-25 victory.
In the second game, the Golden Eagles led 21-19 only to see the Golden Rams run off 11 of the final 15 points to get the 30-25 win.
The third game was once again a tight affair with West Chester holding an 18-17 lead before Clarion went on a 10-3 run to go ahead 27-21. The Rams fought back closing to within two at 27-25 before freshman Leeann Higginbotham got a huge kill to stabilize things for the Golden Eagles who ran off three of the final four points to take the 30-26 win.
Clarion then made sure to take any drama out of the fourth game racing to a 12-4 lead and never allowing West Chester to get closer than five points (15-10) the rest of the way.
GOLDEN EAGLE NOTES - Clarion last won the PSAC Title in 1988 ... The Golden Eagles had lost six straight postseason matches since the 1990 win over West Chester including two in the PSAC and four in the NCAA Division II Tournament ... Clarion is ranked second in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region and has a shot at making the NCAA Division II Playoffs for the second straight season and for the fifth time in the last six years.
