PSAC Tournament Quarterfinals
#3 Clarion Golden Eagles (15-10, 9-5 PSAC West) at #2 IUP Crimson Hawks (20-8, 10-4 PSAC West)
Tuesday, November 19 // 7 p.m.
Indiana, Pa. // Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex
 
Recent Postseason History
For the third straight year, the Golden Eagles and the Crimson Hawks will meet in the opening round of the PSAC Tournament, with Clarion having won the meetings in 2022 and 2023. This year, though, at least part of the script is flipped; the Crimson Hawks will be the home team in 2024 after closing the regular season on a six-match win streak to take the second seed in the West division.
 
In fact, this will be the fourth time the Golden Eagles and Crimson Hawks have met in the postseason in the last three seasons. Clarion hosted IUP in PSAC Tournament quarterfinal matches in both 2022 and 2023, and also faced off against the Crimson Hawks in the Atlantic Region championship match played at Gannon last year. Clarion won all three of those meetings.
 
Recent Matchups
This will be the 10th time these teams have played since the start of the 2022 season, with Clarion owning a 7-2 advantage in the previous nine meetings. Both of those losses have come in five-set matches, with the Crimson Hawks beating the Golden Eagles 3-2 in last year's regular season meeting at Tippin Gym, and just one week ago today at the KCAC in Indiana. In that most recent match, the Crimson Hawks rebounded from a 2-1 deficit to win the final two sets and the match.
 
Four in a Row?
Clarion has been on a hot streak come PSAC Tournament time in recent years. The Golden Eagles have played in three consecutive PSAC Championship matches entering this season, winning over Gannon in 2021 and coming up as runner-up to the Golden Knights in 2022 and 2023.
 
Milestone Watch
Cassidy Snider enters tonight's match with 1,998 career kills, which makes her the NCAA active leader in kills in 2024. With two more she will become the first player in program history to crack the 2,000-kill mark, and just the third player in PSAC history to do so.