CLARION, Pa. --- The Golden Eagle volleyball team snapped a three-match losing streak with a convincing, dominant effort on Friday night, defeating Mercyhurst 3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-13) in TIppin Gymnasium. The win marked the 20^th of the season for the Golden Eagles, making it three consecutive winning campaigns for head coach Jennifer Herron and the 11^th in her career.
 
After a couple of matches where Golden Eagle attackers could not readily find their footing, Clarion cut loose offensively against the Lakers, hitting .305 for the match with 45 kills compared to just 16 errors. The Golden Eagle upperclassmen – playing in their penultimate regular season match in Tippin Gym – led the way, with Cassidy Snider contributing 15 kills and the duo of Julia Piccolino and Charlie Allison each chipping in 10 kills. London Fuller contributed across the stat sheet, posting 30 assists, a match-high 13 digs, a block and an ace.
 
The Golden Eagles pulled away from the Lakers early in the first set, rallying from a 6-5 deficit to score four straight and take a lead. Snider started the rally with a kill and later punctuated it, dropping in an ace to make it a 9-6 Clarion lead. The lead ballooned to 15-11 after a Mercyhurst error, but the Lakers pulled to within 18-17 before the Golden Eagles pulled away for good. Abigail Selfridge aced Andrea Zaric to up the lead to 20-17, and Allison scored a kill on set point to give her team a crucial early lead in the match.
 
Snider and Allison opened the second set on a 3-0 run , and Savannah Taosoga upped the Golden Eagles' lead in that second game to 9-4 with a kill. The biggest moment of the set was Clarion's 8-0 run that turned the game into a rout, with Allison bashing a kill to make it 15-5 and Piccolino adding one a point later to extend the advantage to 11 points. The Lakers pulled things a bit as the set went on, but Taosoga and Annie Koester combined to block Kate Hennessy to make it 23-16. Piccoliino and Snider went off for kills on the final two points to up the match lead to 2-0.
 
Even compared to the second set, the third was a runaway success for the Golden Eagles. Allison gave the Golden Eagles a 5-1 lead with a kill, and a 6-0 run midway through the set was punctuated by a Piccolino kill and included two Selfridge aces. That turned the set into a 14-5 advantage for Clarion with no signs of slowing down. Taylor Haupt dropped in an ace to make it 19-7, and seniors Koester and Sadie Leisinger delivered the final three kills of the night to give the Golden Eagles a match win.
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