obrien
Carey Action Photography
2
Gwynedd Mercy GM 8-18,2-4 Atlantic East
3
Winner Marywood MU 14-15,2-4 Atlantic East
Gwynedd Mercy GM
8-18,2-4 Atlantic East
2
Final
3
Marywood MU
14-15,2-4 Atlantic East
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
Gwynedd Mercy GM 25 21 15 25 11 (2)
Marywood MU 21 25 25 20 15 (3)

Game Recap: Women's Volleyball |

Moving On! Pacers Rally in Five to Advance to Atlantic East Semis

Marywood to meet top-seeded Cabrini on Thursday

Scranton, Pa. – Fourth-seeded Marywood University hung on for a 3-2 victory over No. 5 Gwynedd Mercy University Tuesday in the Atlantic East Conference volleyball first round. The Pacers advance to face top-seeded Cabrini University on Thursday in the semifinal.
 
Marywood (14-15) came back after dropping the first set. The Pacers won the second and third sets, and they came back in the fifth to reach the Atlantic East semifinals for the fourth straight time.
 
The Pacers won by scores of 21-25, 25-21, 25-14, 20-25, 15-11.
 
Four different Marywood players reached double figures in points.
 
Mikayla Meek was just one dig shy of a triple-double. Meek finished with 11 kills, 17 assists and nine digs.
 
Shannon Corr posted a team-high 15 ½ points. Corr notched 10 kills to complement four aces and three block assists. Defensively, she led Marywood with 13 digs.
 
Casey Hagerstrom matched her with 10 kills with just one error for a .391 attack percentage. She had a career-best six total blocks.
 
Captain Emily O'Brien reached double digits in points for the first time since mid-September. She finished with eight kills and three blocks. O'Brien had the Pacers' first point in the first three sets.
 
On defense, four different Pacers recorded exactly nine digs. Donna Bostjancic, Evangeline Kelly, Libby Smith and Meek were each one shy of double figures.
 
Sydney Steiner had a team-high 23 assists.
 
Gwynedd Mercy was led by Aybria Purnell's 19 kills and nine digs. Ashley Brown had 13 kills, and Ashley Morris provided 16 digs and four aces.
 
Unlike their last meeting, the Pacers were not prolific on the service game with both teams recording eight aces. Marywood had nine blocks to the Griffins' five. The Pacers edged the Griffins in almost every facet of the game: points (63-58), kills (46-45), assists (43-42), digs (60-57), and hitting percentage (.105-to-.100).
 
In the first set, the Griffins went ahead on a four-point run (15-11) that was sandwiched by a pair of Purnell kills. Purnell added the final dagger with a kill from Morris for the early lead.
 
Hagerstrom propelled the Pacers with a five-point swing that started with her kill and a string of four points off serves. After the Griffins climbed back to take a 19-18 lead, Marywood added another five-point run to retake the lead. Hagerstrom evened the score with a kill. Corr had back-to-back aces to take a 23-19 advantage.
 
Marywood had an easier ride in the third. A six-point run on Steiner serves was capped by an O'Brien kill that gave the Pacers a 15-8 lead. O'Brien recorded a match for set point that put the Pacers on top by a 2-1 score.
 
The fourth set started poorly for the Pacers. A five-point run by the Griffins gave them an early 5-1 cushion. Marywood pushed late to move within two (22-20). Gwynedd Mercy finished with three straight points and sent the match to a deciding fifth set on a Brown kill.
 
In the final period, Gwynedd Mercy had an early 4-2 lead. A Hagerstrom-Meek block rejuvenated the Pacers. Marywood evened the score at 6-6 on a Hagerstrom-Summer Evancho block that started a four-point run. The Griffins tied the score at 11 apiece on another Brown kill. Meek reclaimed the lead with a kill. After a pair of errors, Marywood secured match point on a Corr kill that capped a long rally.
 
The victory extends Marywood's winning streak over the Griffins to five.
 
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