WHEELING, W. Va. (November 20, 2014) – The seventh-seeded Edinboro women's volleyball team dropped a 3-0 (25-16, 25-10, 25-22) decision at the hands of second-seeded Clarion in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional on Thursday afternoon at the McDonough Center in Wheeling, W. Va. The tournament is being hosted by top-seeded Wheeling Jesuit. The Fighting Scots close the 2014 campaign with a 21-13 overall ledger, while the Golden Eagles improve to 30-4 and advance to the regional semifinals tomorrow.
Edinboro, who was making its first NCAA Atlantic Regional appearance since 2011, fell behind 2-0 after Clarion posted convincing 25-16 and 25-10 victories in the first two sets.
Trailing 21-18 in the third game, Edinboro would score two straight points on a Golden Eagle hitting error and kill by
Challen Litwiler to cut the Clarion lead to 21-20. However, the Golden Eagles outscored the Fighting Scots 4-2 for the remainder of the contest to earn the NCAA first round victory.
Latoya Hutchinson paced Edinboro with nine kills and a .533 hitting percentage.
Tabitha Meeks recorded five kills in the loss.
Sydney Trathen dished out a team-high 16 assists, followed by
Katie Felix with 10 assists.
Marah Maycock led the Fighting Scots with 15 digs and
Haley Marett added 14 digs.
Marett closes her career ranked second in Edinboro history and seventh in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference history with 2,082 career digs. Meeks, also a senior, finishes with 960 career kills and 871 career digs.
Gabrielle Olson led all players with 11 kills and a .556 hitting percentage for Clarion, while Laura Subject and Morgan Seybold tallied game-highs of 33 assists and 19 digs, respectively. Abbey Cox had six block assists for the Golden Eagles, as well.
Edinboro held its largest lead of three points in third set at 8-5. The Clarion posted 37 kills compared to the Fighting Scots' 27 kills in the loss. Fourteen of Edinboro's 27 kills came in the third set.
The Golden Eagles also held advantages of 34-26 in total digs, 4-1 in service aces, 52-47 digs as well as 9-6 in total blocks, including a 16-6 margin in block assists.
Clarion now moves on to face PSAC Tournament Champion California (Pa.) in the semifinals tomorrow.
