Box Score ERIE, Pa. --- For the second time in program history and the first time since 2010, the Golden Eagle volleyball team will advance to the NCAA Championship, as Clarion defeated IUP 3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-17) in the NCAA Atlantic Region championship at Gannon's Highmark Events Center.
 
It took a total team effort to claim the program's second regional championship. Many of those contributions came from the team's senior class, led by senior setter London Fuller. She dished out 28 assists and recorded a team-high 11 digs for a double-double, while also contributing two solo blocks and a kill. Julia Piccolino recorded 11 kills and seven digs, while Abigail Selfridge kicked in nine digs.
 
Records also fell on Saturday night. Cassidy Snider broke the program's single season kills record in the third set, topping the mark of 584 kills set by Melanie Bull during the 2003 season. She tied Bull's record with a smash late in the third set to make it 18-13, and then broke it with a kill off the block at 22-16. Snider finished with a match-high 14 kills.
 
Both teams entered the first set with an aggressive approach at the service line, with IUP getting the better of the early exchanges and taking a 13-9 advantage. Back-to-back Crimson Hawk errors pulled the Golden Eagles back within a point, and an over ball off a tough serve by London Fuller set Cassidy Snider up for a kill to tie the set. IUP scored six of the next nine points to take a 19-16 lead but Fuller delivered a tip kill at the net to halt the run. Charlie Allison blasted an over ball to pull within 20-19, and Clarion eventually tied it at 21 after a setting error by Kat Warpinski.
 
IUP got a key point when Lauren Valentic notched a kill to give her team a 24-23 lead, but Julia Piccolino got a side out when she hit high hands for a kill that tied the set. Allison and Sadie Leisinger then put the Golden Eagles ahead with a critical block on Stefania Anagnostou, making it 25-24, and Abigail Selfridge finished off the set with an ace on the back line.
 
The Crimson Hawks again took an early lead, this time going up 8-5, but consecutive errors quickly pulled the Golden Eagles to within a point. Allison and Piccolino briefly tied it with a block on Simay Memisoglu, and Snider put the team ahead 12-11 with a kill off the hands of an IUP blocker. This time Clarion was the one to win the race to 15 points, with Finley Kearney bouncing one off a set from Fuller, and she combined with Leisinger for a block on the next point to make it 16-14. Snider terminated a long rally with a kill that gave the Golden Eagles a 20-18 lead and forced an IUP timeout, and Piccolino followed that up with an ace off the hands of Bailey Flowerdew.
 
The Crimson Hawks had to burn their second timeout just one point later, when Fuller stuffed Anagnostou on a solo block to put her team ahead 22-18. It was ultimately all part of a 5-0 Golden Eagle run, and Clarion took the set 25-20 after back-to-back IUP attack errors.
 
The Golden Eagles took a 8-5 lead in the third set after kills on three straight points by Piccolino, and Allison made it 10-6 with a blast as Clarion took advantage of a free ball. The Crimson Hawks responded with a modest 4-0 run to pull back to within 12-10, but the Golden Eagles notched three straight points after that, including a solo block by Fuller. Piccolino made it 17-11 with an ace, but the Crimson Hawks scored four of the next five points to pull within three. Kearney and Snider closed out a long rally with a block to make it 21-15, and Piccolino delivered a kill on a free ball to make it 23-16. The match point came courtesy of Kearney, who clipped the line on a shot from the middle for the win.