See the bottom of the page for video reaction to the win from Kaitlyn Anderson and Coach Harrison
CLARION – What a difference a few days make.
The Clarion University women's volleyball team rebounded from a 3-2 loss at Gannon Friday night to defeat the Lady Knights 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-19) in the opening round of the PSAC Playoffs Tuesday night in front of a ruckus crowd of over 500 at Clarion Tippin Gym.
“We only had one practice between Friday's game and tonight's game,” Clarion head coach Jennifer Harrison said. “We knew what we were able to fix, and we were able to fix it.”
With the victory, Clarion (27-4) will host the PSAC Semifinals and Championship match Friday and Saturday for the first time in school history. The Golden Eagles will play the 7:30 p.m. semifinal match Friday against Kutztown, a 3-1 winner over Shippensburg. Edinboro will play either West Chester or Lock Haven in the first semifinal game at 5 p.m. Saturday's championship match will be at 7 p.m.
In getting to the semifinals, the Golden Eagles got a fantastic night from
Kellie Bartman who had 13 kills and 11 digs while hitting .444.
Kaitlyn Anderson added nine kills and eight digs,
Corinne Manley had eight kills and
Rebecca Webb seven kill and three blocks while hitting .500 (7-0-14).
“I think the crowd was a difference to begin with,” Anderson said. “When we go out there and hear our fans cheering us on that helps us a lot. We get really exited. Also, we knew what we did wrong at the game on Friday. So this game, we were really focusing on those key points. We really knew we had to block the outsides and dig them in order to start getting ahead of them and get their confidence down. We did a good job of that.”
The Clarion defense held Gannon (20-9) to under .100 hitting (.084) after the Lady Knights had hit .322 Friday.
“Nikki (Andrusz) came in and had a few important blocks early,” Harrison said. “That showed us what we needed to do. The girls were so confident after that because we knew we could contain their outside hitters.”
Andrusz finished the night with four blocks.
NOTES – The victory runs Clarion home playoff record to 8-2 all time including 2-0 in PSAC playoff – the Golden Eagles beat Edinboro 3-1 in last year's quarterfinals at Tippin Gym … Clarion is looking for its first PSAC Title since 1988, when the Golden Eagles won their only PSAC Championship … The Golden Eagles won the PSAC-West this season for the first time in school history.
