The Griffin volleyball team hosted Slippery Rock University on Saturday afternoon in the regular season finale for both teams.  Before the game, the Griffins honored seniors Lauren Teed, Emily Gilles, Shelby Kyllo and Abigail Malsch.  The Griffins used the senior day momentum to jump out to a 2-0 lead before defeating the Rock in four games.  SHU improves to 23-13 overall and ends PSAC play with a 13-9 mark. 

The Rock led early in the first set 7-6 before SHU went on a 3-0 run to take a 9-7 lead.  Mary Baich had a kill and Brynn Fleury added an ace during the run.  The Rock rallied to take a 15-13 lead.  Kills from Jenna Sassack and Baich put the Griffins back in the lead at 16-15.  Two Griffin attack errors tied the set at 21.  SHU then went to Cassie Hausfeld who had back to back kills to give SHU a 23-21 lead.  Hausfeld also closed out the set with a kill and SHU led 1-0 following a 25-22 first set win.

Kills from Baich and Hausfeld gave SHU the early 4-1 lead in the second set.  After a kill from Jessica Beal, SHU led 14-7 forcing a Rock timeout.  Two more kills from Hausfeld and Sassack pushed the lead to 20-11.  SHU would take a 2-0 lead with a 25-17 second set win. 

The third set was very tightly played throughout with neither team holding more than a two point lead at any time in the set.  Kills from Hausfeld and Beal keyed a 3-0 SHU run midway through the set.  Back to back kills from Emily Gilles and Beal gave SHU a 20-19 lead but Slippery Rock scored four of the last five points of the set for a 25-23 victory.  Senior Shelby Kyllo was inserted late in the set to serve as she has missed the second half of the season with an injury.

The fourth set was tied at four before SHU went on a 3-0 run and took a lead they would not lose the rest of the set.  SHU used a kill from Hausfeld and blocks from Sassack/Baich and Fleury increased the Griffin lead to 16-11.  Late in the fourth set, senior Abigail Malsch was inserted into the game to serve and scored three points on serve giving the Griffins a 23-17 lead.  SHU then closed out the set and the match with a 25-18 win.

Cassie Hausfeld led the Griffins with 21 kills in the match.  Mary Baich added 10 kills and Jessica Beal finished with 9.  Baich and Jenna Sassack each finished with 3 blocks.  Brynn Fleury had a match high 50 assists.  Lauren Teed finished with a match high 26 digs in her final home contest.  Hannah Moeller added 14 and Baich finished with 13.

The Griffins must now wait to see if they will earn an at large bid for the NCAA Regionals.  SHU was ninth in the last regional rankings with just the top 8 making the NCAA field.  The next rankings will be announced this Wednesday.