CLARION, Pa. – The Clarion volleyball team won its second five-set match in as many days, holding off Edinboro 3-2 (26-24, 21-25, 25-17, 23-25, 23-21) at Tippin Gymnasium on Saturday.  The Golden Eagles have now won three straight conference matches.
 
For most of the afternoon neither team was able to open up a sizable advantage, with that fact illustrated nowhere better than in the decisive fifth set.  The Golden Eagles actually did hold something of an advantage in the final game, opening on a 4-1 run, but things quickly settled into another close set.  Clarion then built a 10-7 lead, with their 4-0 run capped on a solo block by Julia Holden, but Edinboro rallied back to tie it at 13, and eventually held match point after a kill by Cierah Jackson.
 
The teams traded points for an eternity in the fifth set, with Taylor Braunagel tying the game at 21 with a kill.  A bad set by the Fighting Scots gave Clarion the match point opportunity, and Leah Vensel made it count when she tipped the match-winning kill at 23-21.
 
Braunagel posted a career-high 29 kills, the ninth-best single match total in program history and the most for a Golden Eagle since Melanie Bull had 30 kills against IUP exactly 14 years ago, on Oct. 14 2003.  She also added 16 digs for her seventh double-double of the year.  Clarion held a big edge at the service line, out-acing Edinboro 9-4.  Three of those aces came from Catherine Ferragonio, who also had a match-high 21 digs.
 
The Fighting Scots opened the match on a 7-1 run, but Clarion came back with a 7-0 run to take an advantage in the first set.  The teams rallied back and forth, with an attack error by Vensel giving Edinboro a 24-23 advantage.  The Fighting Scots committed an error of their own on the next play to give Clarion new life, and Lauryn Driscoll smashed one of her 15 kills for the match to force set point.  Driscoll then blocked Jackson on the next point to take the 26-24 set win.
 
Edinboro held off a Clarion rally late in the second set to win 25-21, but the Golden Eagles used a 12-2 run in the third set to take the match advantage.  The Fighting Scots took a 15-13 lead on an attack error by Holden, and again built a 16-14 lead on a block from Sydney Trathen and Tessa Sikora.  Clarion's opening came when Ferragonio took over the serve with the set tied at 16.  The Golden Eagles scored eight straight times on Ferragonio's serve, including three kills by Braunagel.  Shelby Coughenour and Kaitlyn Glaser blocked Paige Morris on set point to make it a 2-1 match lead.