Slippery Rock University Athletics

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University volleyball team lost to Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division foe Clarion in three sets Wednesday at Morrow Field House.
 
SRU heads into a six-day layoff between matches with a 5-6 overall record and a 0-1 mark inside the PSAC West. The Golden Eagles leave Slippery Rock at 8-4 overall and 1-0 in league competition.
 
Ava Haynes paced The Rock's attack with a solid nine-kill showing on a stellar .389 attack percentage to go with two blocks Wednesday. Marley Annis (7) and Emry Rumbaugh (4) combined for 11 kills to round out SRU's attack leaders.
 
Paityn Krause and Emily Loeffler split setting duties with 17 and nine assists, respectively, while Bailey Espana served Slippery Rock's lone ace.
 
Defensively, Victoria collected five blocks (one solo / four assisted), while Haynes and Hayden Deming each added two block assists as well. Libero Kara Pasquale and Ellie Friedrichs shared team-high honors in digs at 13 apiece.
 
Slippery Rock had trouble working around Clarion's formattable frontline, which ended the night with 11 total blocks and helping to hold SRU to a .057 team attack percentage. For the night, Clarion held advantages over SRU in kills (41-29), attack percentage (.234-.057) and total blocks (11-6), while Slippery Rock claimed a 49-48 edge in digs.
 
The Rock and Golden Eagles played to a 15-15 tie in the first set, but Clarion closed the opener on a 10-2 run to take a 25-17 win.
 
Clarion jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the second set only for Slippery Rock to claw its way back into the contest, eventually pulling even with the Golden Eagles at 17-17. From there, SRU and Clarion traded points before the Golden Eagles edged their way to a 23-22 lead followed by back-to-back set-ending kills from Finley Kearney and Taylor Haupt.
 
Slippery Rock was unable to avoid the sweep in the third set as Clarion again eked out close win after another Haupt kill and a SRU attack error proved to be the final difference in a 25-23 match-deciding set for the Golden Eagles.
 
Cara Vandeborne recorded eight blocks (two solo / six assisted) and Raegan Stader went for 14 kills to lead Clarion.
 
Slippery Rock briefly steps out of PSAC West competition for one of its two final non-conference matches of the regular season 6:30 p.m. Sept. 22 at Daemen University.






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