ERIE, Pa. - The Gannon volleyball team travels to California (Pa.) for NCAA Tournament action. The Lady Knights take on Wheeling Jesuit Thursday. The match is set for a 5 p.m. start at Hamer Hall.
90.5 WERG-FM will broadcast the contest live on the radio. The Internet broadcast can be found at
http://www.gannon.edu/athletics/werg/knightsound.html.
The Lady Knights finished the regular season fourth in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Western Division, going 13-6 in conference play. GU went 22-9 overall, its best mark since 1995. GU qualified for its first NCAA Tournament appearance since that same season.
Wheeling Jesuit won the regular season and tournament championships in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC). The Cardinals come into the tournament on a 25-match win streak, having gone 35-5 overall in 2009. WJU features consecutive conference players of the year in Catie Halberstadt and Keysha Allison. Allissa Ware was also named WVIAC freshman of the year this season.
Gannon beat Wheeling in five sets September 12 at the PSAC-WVIAC Crossover in Erie. WJU took the first set before GU won the next two. After the Cardinals tied the match, the Knights won 15-6 in the decisive fifth frame.
GU leads the all-time series 4-3, but Wheeling won a five-set match at home over the Knights in the 2008 season. Knight outside hitter
Lauren Sazama (St. Louis, Mo./Oakville) has 76 aces, most of any player in the conference.
Kara Cullen (Marstons Mills, Mass./Barnstable) averaged a league-high 1.16 blocks a set. Wheeling hit a WVIAC-high .260 as team and contained opponents to a .125 hitting percentage, best in the conference.
The winner of the WJU-Gannon contest advances to the regional semifinals Friday to face the winner of the Chowan (NC)-Cal match. California is the host and top seed in the Atlantic. The Vulcans have won the region each of the past two seasons before falling in the fourth round both times.
On the other side of the bracket, Clarion takes on Edinboro and Lock Haven meets Mercyhurst in first-round action.