With first place on the line in an early season PSAC Southwest Division matchup, Seton Hill took control of the division with a three set sweep of the visiting Clarion Golden Eagles. With the win, the Griffins have a three game winning streak and are 16-4 overall and 9-2 in PSAC SW Division play. Clarion drops to 17-7 overall and 8-3 in PSAC play.
It did not look good early as the Golden Eagles looked like the team that played a three set match last night and the Griffins looked like a team that played a hard fought five set match as Clarion jumped out to a quick 6-1 lead. Clarion led 15-10 before the Griffins began to make their run. Two substitutions helped the Griffins turn it around as
Sidney Chapman registered back to back kills and
Jessica Beal got a block to cut the Eagles lead to 16-15. SHU used a kill from
Viktoria Farian and Beal to take their first lead of the set at 19-18. It looked like Clarion had retaken control of the set with a 4-0 run to take a 23-20 lead but the resilient Griffins would not go away easily.
Maggie Murray and
Leah Bisignani combined for a block and a Eagle hitting error trimmed the lead to 23-22. After another Clarion kill, the Griffins ended the set with a 4-0 run to take a 1-0 lead. Bisignani and Chapman had kills and Bisignani and
Jenna Sassack combined on a block on set point to give SHU the 26-24 win.
Clarion again took an early lead in the second set. They led 11-9 before the Griffins scored four straight to take a 13-11 lead. The last two points came on aces from Farian. SHU put together another 4-0 run with a kill and ace from Chapman to push the lead to 19-14. The Griffins were able to hang on to that lead and took a 2-0 lead after a 25-21 second set win.
The third set was all Griffins and Farian as she accounted for 8 kills in the third set. SHU jumped all over the Golden Eagles in the third set, climbing out to a 12-2 lead and cruising to a 25-12 third set win. The Griffins hit .452 in the third set with 15 kills and just one error.
Leading the way for the Griffins were Bisignani and Farian who each had 11 kills. Farian added 13 digs and 4 aces. Bisignani added 6 blocks and 5 digs. Chapman added 7 kills and 10 digs. Beal finished with 6 kills.
SHU will return to action on Tuesday evening when they host Charleston (WV) in a non conference matchup.