ERIE, Pa. – In a late-season battle for first place in the PSAC West, the Clarion University women's volleyball team moved one step closer to its second straight PSAC West title with a 3-2 win at Gannon Saturday afternoon.
 
The teams spilt the first four sets with Clarion winning Set One 25-20 and Set Three 25-18 and Gannon taking Set Two 26-24 and Set Four 30-28 setting up a fifth-set showdown that went the Golden Eagles way 15-10.
 
"It was definitely a really good bounce back win after the loss to Mercyhurst last night," Clarion's eighth-year head coach Jennifer Mills said. "We played well, and we played hard today, especially against Gannon, which is a really good team that is really well coached and very athletic. "We did some really good things in system more today, and our mental attitude was there. Plus we made some defensive plays that contributed to the end result."
 
The victory puts Clarion (27-3 overall, 18-2 PSAC West) a game up on Gannon (24-3, 17-3) for the West title with two games to play, and its essentially a two-game lead for the Golden Eagles who swept a pair of 3-2 decisions from Gannon this season. If Clarion wins either at Slippery Rock Friday or at home against Edinboro Saturday or Gannon loses one of its final two matches, the Golden Eagles will claim their second straight PSAC West crown and their third PSAC West title since 2010.
 
Once again for Clarion it was the young ones who stepped to the forefront on offense with freshmen Taylor Braunagel, Gabrielle Olson and Catherine Ferragonio combining for 50 kills led by Braunagel's 21 kills and .333 (21 kills, 2 errors, 57 attempts). Olson added 18 kills and four blocks while hitting .366 (18-3-41), and Ferragonio recorded her third career double-double, all since Oct. 11, with 12 kills and 27 digs.
 
"They came up really huge, especially in some pressure situations." Mills said. "They were able to put the ball away in some tough situations. I couldn't be more proud."
 
Mackenzie Biggs also had a strong match for the Golden Eagles with 14 kills and six digs while hitting .444 (14-2-27).
 
Laura Subject was a monster in running the offense with a career-best 70 set assists (14 per set), the most by a Golden Eagle since Kristi Fiorillo had 70 against Millersville in 2006, to go with nine digs and three blocks.
 
"She was great today," Mills said. "She was super strong and brought that smile and leadership we are use to seeing. She was able to find our middle early, and as Gannon geared up to block the middle she found our outside hitters, and they were able to win some one-on-one battles. She was making some great decisions today."
 
Abbey Cox added nine kills and five blocks, Morgan Seybold had 29 digs, Carlie Bieranowski had 21 digs and two kills and Mattison Thornton 13 digs for Clarion.

In the decisive fifth set Taylor Braunagel had three kills and Mackenzie Biggs two kills and a block with Braunagel recording three of Clarion's final four points and Biggs helping to record three of the first five.
 
Gannon got 27 kills and 17 digs from Hannah Kren, while Maggie Desrosiers and Lynne Hibbard each added 13 kills with Desrosiers finishing off a double-double with 20 digs. Megan Wendel matched Subject with 70 set assists, and Jordyn Thiery had 20 digs.
 
In the decisive fifth set, Clarion wasted little time putting the Set Four loss behind it by grabbing an early 9-3 lead on the strength of two Biggs kills, a block by Biggs and Olson, another block by Olson and Subject, a Cox Kill, a Ferragonio kill, a Seybold ace and a pair of Gannon errors.
 
Gannon rallied to close within two, 10-8, but Subject had a kill to make it 11-8 before Lauren Beck, who had nine kills, answered back for Gannon with a kill to make it 11-9.
 
But Braunagel responded with two straight kills followed by an Olson kill to make it 14-9 before Kelsey Ansec gave the Golden Knights life with a kill to cut Clarion's leads to 14-10. Braunagel, however, put the match away with a kill.
 
Clarion had six match points in the fourth set only to watch Gannon rally each team before the Golden Knights pulled out the 30-28 win.
 
The Golden Eagles led 24-22, 24-23, 25-24, 26-25, 27-27 and 28-27 but Gannon, behind three Kren kills was able to stave off defeat and finally force the fifth set.
 
Clarion returns to action at 7 p.m. Friday at Slipper Rock.