The Griffins closed out regular season play looking for their first PSAC regular season championship as they battled Indiana (PA) in the KCAC on Saturday afternoon. Seton Hill saw that chance slip away as IUP clinched the PSAC Southwest Division title and PSAC Regular season championship with a 3-1 victory over the Griffins. SHU drops to 22-6 overall and 14-4 in PSAC play while IUP improves to 24-8 overall and 15-3 in PSAC play.
IUP rode the momentum from Senior Day to jump out to an early 8-3 lead over the Griffins in the first set, forcing Coach Hall to call a timeout. The Crimson Hawks continued the momentum to take an 11-3 lead. Sidney Chapman got the first kill for the Griffins as they trimmed the lead to 11-4. A block from Katie Wenson and Jenna Sassack and an ace from Leah Bisignani cut the lead to 11-6. Four straight points from the Griffins cut the IUP lead to 16-12, forcing the Hawks to burn a timeout. The Crimson Hawks were able to hold their lead and take the first set by a 25-17 score.
Seton Hill took a 6-3 lead to open the second set with three kills from Viktoria Farian. IUP fought back to tie the set at ten. SHU answered to take a 16-14 lead. Erin Parks gave the Griffins an 18-17 lead with a kill. A block from Wenson and Maggie Murray tied the set at 19. A kill from Farian and a block from Murray and Bisignani gave SHU a 21-20 lead. An IUP hitting error gave SHU a 23-21 lead late in the set. After IUP tied the set at 23, Jillian Livorse gave SHU a 24-23 lead. An IUP block tied the set at 24. After IUP took a lead, Wenson and Parks teamed for a block to tie it at 25 and Farian followed with a block to give SHU a 26-25 lead. Wenson ended the set with a kill and SHU tied the match at one with a 27-25 second set win.
A block from Sassack and Wenson and two kills from Farian gave SHU an early 3-0 lead in the third set. Back to back kills from Livorse put SHU ahead 7-5. Two IUP hitting errors extended the Griffins lead to 11-7, forcing an IUP timeout. A Farian blast extended the SHU lead to 15-10. Two Griffin errors and an IUP kill cut the lead to 16-15. Two receiving errors and a hitting error helped the IUP 6-0 run and gave the Crimson Hawks a 17-16 lead. The Griffins continued to keep putting up errors, giving IUP a 21-18 lead. Two more Griffin attack errors pushed the IUP lead to 23-18. IUP took a 2-1 lead with a 25-19 win. IUP closed the set on a 14-3 run.
SHU opened the fourth set with a 7-4 run to take an early lead. IUP responded with five straight to take a 9-7 lead. They continued the run to take a 15-10 lead. The Hawks used two 4-0 runs to build their lead. Two kills from Farian trimmed the lead to 17-14. IUP closed out the match with a 25-19 fourth set win.
Farian was the lone Griffin with double figure kills as she ended the match with 18. Parks was next with 6 kills.
IUP finished the match with 61 kills and hit .207 in the match. The Griffins finished with just 42 kills while hitting only .106.
The Griffins will finish as either the second or third seed in the tournament and host a PSAC quarterfinal on Tuesday evening at 7 PM.
