CLARION, Pa. --- The Golden Eagle volleyball team fell in a back-and-forth rollercoaster of a match on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 3-2 (14-25, 12-25, 25-13, 25-23, 9-15) decision to Gannon in Tippin Gymnasium. Clarion rebounded from a two-set deficit to force a fifth, but were unable to overcome the Golden Knights in the final frame.
 
Gannon's offense was humming for most of the match, hitting .423 or better in the three sets they won. The Golden Knights opened up a 2-0 advantage in the match but the Golden Eagles rallied for a dominant win in the third set, and then outlasted Gannon by a 25-23 score to force a fourth.
 
The momentum began to turn for Clarion in the third set, with the Golden Eagles embarking on a 7-0 run to open up a 15-8 lead. London Fuller broke an 8-8 tie with a tip kill, and Julia Piccolino served up an ace against Sam Deinek to make it 12-8. Cassidy Snider closed out the run with a kill at 15-8, and Amy Regrut pushed the advantage to 19-11 with a kill. The Golden Eagles closed out the set with four straight points, starting with a kill by Lauren Aichinger and including two blocks from Aichinger and Fuller to set the deficit at 25-13.
 
Gannon led 11-5 in the fourth set and seemed poised to end the match, but a 4-0 run – including two aces by Abigail Selfridge – pulled the Golden Eagles to within 11-9. Regrut bounced kills on three out of four points to take a 15-14 lead, but the Golden Knights rallied and took an 18-16 advantage. Once again the Golden Eagles put together a run, this time taking advantage of Gannon errors. Aichinger and Fuller had kills on back-to-back points to take a 21-18 lead, and Regrut pounded a kill on set point to tie the match at two sets apiece.
 
The Golden Knights jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the fifth set, but this time the Golden Eagles were unable to muster enough points to come back. Alyson Peters ripped a kill to make it 12-9, but the Golden Knights scored on three straight points to end the set at 15-9.
 
Regrut was the Golden Eagles' leading attacker, posting 12 kills and hitting .290. Cassidy Snider and Julia Piccolino had 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Lauren Aichinger had eight kills and six blocks, while London Fuller had 40 assists, 21 digs, five blocks and four kills.
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