The Knights, who had been tantalizingly close to advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the past two years, were finally able to, as Coach Matt Darling said, “get over the hump,” a feeling he said could not be explained in words.

In order to accomplish the task of advancing to the second round, however, Gannon had to beat rival Mercyhurst for the third time this season.

“I was definitely nervous,” Darling said. “It’s scary to play a team for a fourth time.”

The team was up to the challenge, however, by controlling most of the match, aside from the second set and a 10-point stretch in the fourth and final set that ended with a kill from sophomore setter Megan Wendel off of a tight pass.

The Saturday match against Cal was conversely controlled by the Vulcans, as the Knights were unable to generate the type of offense that had helped make them so successful throughout the season, but senior outside hitter Lauren Sazama did give due credit to a strong opponent in Cal.

“Our season had to end sometime, and we lost to a great team,” she said.

Darling said that the loss was not connected with any lack of effort.

“It just wasn’t our weekend,” Darling said. “We’re a young team still. Most of the season we didn’t look like it; this weekend we did. It just didn’t happen for us.

“I’m not going to let one off-weekend tarnish a brilliant 2012 season.”

The season will go down as one of the most successful in the program’s history, with a first-ever PSAC championship, as well as an NCAA tournament appearance and first-round victory. Darling noted the conference championship as this year’s team’s crowning achievement, especially for the three seniors – Sazama, Morgan Reineke and Sarah Glancy.

“It’s the culminating event of their college careers,” he said. “Everybody wants to win a championship, but to do it in your senior year, after coming to a program that was derelict for so many years, is the ultimate compliment to their perseverance, their talent and their ability to come together when it mattered most.”

Sazama and Reineke, two of the conference’s leading outside hitters, both said that the conference title is an achievement they could not be more proud of.

“It made the end of my career one I will never forget,” Sazama said.

Moving into the offseason, Darling said he is excited to get back to work with a dedicated group of underclassmen.

“They just want to be good,” he said. “The person who was crying the hardest at the end of the [Cal] game? [Freshman] Morgan Walters. She was inconsolable. I love that. That kid wants it.”

While the underclassmen and coaches start thinking about the work next year’s season will hold for them, the seniors can look back on their careers that include some monumental moments.

“It’s been a long time since Gannon volleyball has been this successful,” Reineke said. “All our hard work produced a PSAC championship and another NCAA banner to hang in the ‘Mill. No one will ever be able to take that away from us.”

CHRISTINE PEFFER

peffer002@knights.gannon.edu

The road to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference title was not easy, as both the semifinal and championship matches went the distance, with the Knights emerging as the victors in both five-set matches, defeating Slippery Rock University on Nov. 15 and Lock Haven University on Nov. 17.

After falling to 0-2 during the Lock Haven match, coach Matt Darling said the team’s seniors knew they needed to defend their home court.

“When I entered the huddle, the seniors were already saying, ‘We’re coming back to win this match,’” he said. “The only thing I added was, ‘The only thing we haven’t done this year is come back from an 0-2 deficit to win. So why not do it?’”

The Knights had previously lost the only other two five-set matches they had played this season, but after defeating Slippery Rock in five only two days before, they were up to the task of playing from behind.

Darling said that a shift in momentum was all the team would need to come storming back and take the match and the PSAC title. He said that this shift, along with playing better defense, were key factors in turning things around in the third set, where the team gained and maintained control for the duration of the match.

Darling said both benefitted Lock Haven in the first two sets.

“I knew we’d be fine if we could just get some momentum, he said.”

Senior outside hitters Morgan Reineke and Lauren Sazama led the team’s offensive effort with 20 and 19 kills, respectively, while sophomore libero Taryn Graham led in digs with 19. Megan Wendel led both teams in assists with 48.

The players and coaches accepted their awards in front of a crowd of 584 in the Hammermill Center, and received additional honors even after the awards ceremony had ended.

Sazama was named to the AVCA All-Atlantic Region first team, while Wendel collected an honorable mention. Darling was also named AVCA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year, as well as PSAC Western Division Coach of the Year.

Darling said that despite the PSAC championship and the rest of the awards that came along with it, the team is not about to become complacent.

“Because we still have more volleyball ahead of us, I don’t know if I’ve thought that much about what the conference championship means,” he said. “When we look back on it after the season, it will probably mean a great deal to us, especially to the three seniors, who have worked hard for four years and have had to put up with me for hundreds of practices.”

The conference championship catapulted the Knights directly into the NCAA tournament, where, as the No. 2 seed, will face rival Mercyhurst University (No. 7) for the fourth time this season. Gannon holds the edge in matches won with a 2-1 mark.

“We know that it will be tough to beat them a third time, but we’re focusing on the same things that helped us win the last two matchups – controlling the ball and taking advantage of any opportunities we get to score,” Darling said.

The rivalry match slated for the first round of the NCAA tournament will take place Thursday at host and No. 1 seed Wheeling Jesuit University.

“It’s going to be a tough match,” Darling said, “but I think we’ll be ready to compete hard. Rivalry games are always intense.”

CHRISTINE PEFFER

peffer002@knights.gannon.edu

Sazama started her collegiate career following Gannon’s 13-14 2008 season. Since then, the Knights have reached 20 wins each season — thanks in no small part to Sazama, who was named the NCAA Atlantic Region Player of the Year Tuesday.

Leading the court as the powerful outside hitter early on in her career it was clear that Sazama had found her domain. Looking back on the experience now, she has only one regret. “I should have listened to the coach sooner,” Sazama said referring to coach Matt Darling. “He is always right in the end.”

Sazama found a new family in her team. Her teammates quickly became her new best friends and role models.

“They made it fun to play,” she said. “I’ll miss everything with these girls, the list goes on and on.”

Searching for the perfect school to call home, Sazama fell in love with Gannon the minute she met the team.”Gannon felt like a family,” she said.

“Taking on the real world without them will definitely be a challenge.”

Statistically Sazama’s best year has been her senior year, but she also says it’s been the team’s as well. “We accomplished a goal that was set when I was a freshman— to win the PSAC championship,” Sazama said. “And it couldn’t have come at a better time.”

To finish her career with a championship under her belt was a definite highlight of her Gannon experience, but she can’t pick just one. In the summer of 2010, the Knights traveled to Nicaragua.

“Once in a lifetime experience,” Sazama said, “from speaking Spanish with the kids, to learning how to surf, it was just unbelievable.”

Life as a Knight has been more than a good experience for Sazama; it has been life-changing. The new friends, the goals she has accomplished and the trust from her teammates have pushed her to excel to be the best she can be.

“I didn’t want to let them down,” she said. “Their trust and hard work ethic pushed me to give 100 percent.”

Sazama will be a tough act to follow for future players on the volleyball team at Gannon, but that hasn’t stopped her from lending sage advice to the underclassmen.“Come ready to work,” she said. “Every up and down you go through, in the end is worth it.”

When the Knights take the court in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday against Mercyhurst University at Wheeling, W. Va., Sazama will try to soak in all she can.

“It always feels good going out on top,” Sazama said. “I hope to continue playing competively but if this was my last time, then I am glad it ended with a championship.”

BECKY HILKER

hilker001@knights.gannon.edu

Gannon, which is hosting the PSAC West tournament, emerged as the victor by defeating rival Mercyhurst in straight sets, with scores of 25-18, 25-21 and a come-from-behind 26-24 third set to seal the win.

Senior outside hitter Morgan Reineke said this match had been accumulating a lot of hype.

“It’s Mercyhurst,” she said. “The intensity, the competition are there before we even step on the court. It’s a grudge match.”

The energy in the Hammermill Center was palpable, as the vocal crowd was full of both Gannon and Mercyhurst supporters. The tension broke during the second set, when first Gannon coach Matt Darling was flagged with a yellow card, and Mercyhurst coach Ryan Patton was saddled with one barely three points later.

According to Reineke, the calls only served to build the intensity of the already heated match.

“Coach getting a yellow card, it just pumps you up,” she said. “When the crowd gets loud, it builds so much energy in the gym, and we love it.”

Fellow senior outside hitter Lauren Sazama also said the tide turned in the Knights’ favor following the yellow cards.

“We had to come from behind, and I think the crowd and the yellow cards boosted our energy,” she said.

Both teams pulled out all the stops defensively, engaging in full pursuit and laying out for even the most poorly shanked balls. Darling said he has been pleased with Gannon’s effort level.

“We’ve never had a team come together and play so hard for each other,” he said. “It’s been fun.”

Prior to taking on their first conference tournament match, the Knights finished out regular season play Thursday and Saturday with 3-set sweeps over Slippery Rock and Clarion universities in the Hammermill Center.

The senior night match on Saturday lived up to its name, as the three Gannon seniors – Sazama, Reineke and middle blocker Sarah Glancy –  accounted for 37 of the team’s 46 kills against the Golden Eagles. Reineke said the match was one that she had been looking forward to for a long time.

“It’s always something you think about when you’re a freshman, and it just seems so far away, and all of a sudden it’s here,” she said. “We came out and played the best we’ve ever played all season.”

Darling said that this group of seniors has had a huge impact on the team and program as a whole.

“They [the seniors] have done so much to enable the turnaround of this program, and it’s not just the stats and wins,” he said. “As I told them on Saturday, I’m grateful that we’re not done for a few more weeks. I’m not ready for this year to end.”

The Knights will continue their PSAC tournament run at 7:30 Friday against Shippensburg University in the Hammermill.

Darling said he feels confident the team is in a good position going into this semifinal match.

“We’re to the point now where we are, at times, clicking in pretty much every area of the game,” he said. “We’ll continue to try to sharpen up our offense and make tactical adjustments based on our opponents, but I think we’ve addressed the big things enough to make a post-season run.

“We’ll be ready.”

CHRISTINE PEFFER

peffer002@knights.gannon.edu

The team’s 23-5 overall record represents the most wins the program has seen in a single season under the coaching of Matt Darling, who is currently in his sixth year with the Knights.

Darling said that the record number of wins means more than just a number.

“Since I’ve been here, we’ve never been this good,” he said.

He also said that the team appears to be peaking at just the right time after dismantling a strong Mercyhurst team that beat the Knights earlier in the season. The Knights have also, according to Darling, just completed a six-game stretch against PSAC West opponents, of which five were on the road.

“I think we’ll continue to build momentum this weekend, and hopefully that momentum will continue if and when we host some playoff games in the ‘Mill,” he said.

This past weekend, Darling said, was “a tale of two matches.” While he said that playing in front of an enthusiastic home crowd against rival Mercyhurst the team was “focused, motivated and energized,” it was a different story playing at Edinboro, which has not been having as strong a year as it has in the past.

“[It] was set up to be a classic letdown scenario,” Darling said. “We had an emotional win less than 24 hours before and had a hard time matching that emotion on Saturday.”

Because of this, Darling said the Knights had to count on big plays to close out tight sets. Blocking was a key factor at these moments. Senior middle hitter Sarah Glancy led the blocking effort with four total blocks against the Fighting Scots. Sophomore libero Taryn Graham rounded out the defensive numbers with a match-high 15 digs.

While the team is happy to hold on to the No. 1 conference spot, Darling said that the Knights are never happy with all aspects of their play. They have turned their focus of late to defense, and Darling said it has paid off. But he also said that with playoffs looming, they will again refocus on their strongest area – offense.

“[It] had been our bread and butter all year,” Darling said. “We’re young enough that I think some improvements in a few areas will continue even into late November.”

Though the team is young, it has largely relied on senior leadership from senior outside hitters Lauren Sazama – who has recorded her fifth PSAC athlete of the week award this season alone – and Morgan Reineke, as well as Glancy.

Gannon will take on Slippery Rock and Clarion universities at home Thursday and Saturday. A win against The Rock would ensure that all of Gannon’s conference playoff games would take place at the Hammermill Center.

CHRISTINE PEFFER

peffer002@knights.gannon.edu

The Knights defeated Clarion in straight sets Friday by scores of 25-20, 25-11 and 25-18. They continued their rout of PSAC opponents by also sweeping the Rock Saturday, giving coach Matt Darling his 100th career win with scores of 25-16, 25-22 and 25-21.

According to Darling, the team won the matches in different ways.

“We which the Clarion match not because of offense so much, which is where we’ve usually been stronger this year, but because we served really well and we passed really, really well,” he said. “We were just in system enough to keep them off balance at all times.”

Gannon, which was kept to hitting an uncharacteristically low 18 percent, was also hindered by Clarion’s ability to keep the dominant Lauren Sazama in check, as she finished with 11 kills. However, the team was able to mirror Clarion’s strategy by allowing the conference’s leading attacker, middle hitter Rebecca Webb, to a single kill with five hitting errors.

“We totally shut her down,” Darling said. “She’s been the one helping them to win matches, and we just completely took her out of it.”

Sophomore libero Taryn Graham said that beating the former outright conference leader was made possible by approaching the match with the right mindset.

“We were really focused,” she said. “Coach [Darling] kept telling us the whole game to play for each other, and that’s really what we did.”

Graham said that she does not think the team will feel any added pressure as they share the top conference spot with Clarion.

“If anything it just gets us more excited and focused to do well,” she said.

Against Slippery Rock, the Knights were back to playing their strong, offensive-based game, as they hit 38 percent, one of their highest hitting percentages of the season as they handily defeated the Rock.

Gannon now sits at 11-2 in the PSAC as it reaches the halfway mark of conference play. Beginning the second cycle in which they will face each PSAC opponent for a second time, the Knights will get a chance to avenge their only two losses to California University of Pennsylvania and Mercyhurst University.

According to Graham, the Knights will be successful in their remaining matches if they continue to play the way they did Friday against Clarion.

Darling added that he thinks the team needs to focus on the present.

“We have an interesting dynamic where we have three home and three road games left,” he said. “Cal and IUP this weekend is our toughest road stretch. I really feel like we just have to take matches one at a time. If we can just keep that mentality the rest of the way, I think we’re going to end up in good shape.”

He also said that staying healthy throughout the rest of the season will give the team an advantage over others, as this is something that is difficult for teams to do at this point in the season.

“We’ve had to rest some people here and there, but for the most part we’ve been reasonably healthy,” he said. “Our goal is not necessarily to win the outright regular season [PSAC] championship, which counts for nothing – we’re trying to get a good seed so that we can make a run in the tournament.”

The Knights will look to get one step closer to a high tournament seed as they travel to Indiana and California universities of Pennsylvania, respectively, for a 7 p.m. match Friday and a 2 p.m. match Saturday.

CHRISTINE PEFFER

peffer002@knights.gannon.edu

Friday at the Hammermill Center, Gannon prepared for a match against rival Edinboro University. From a strong week of practice and mental preparation, the Knights defeated the Fighting Scots. The match consisted of straight-set wins with scores of 25-15, 25-16 and 25-22.

Again out-hitting its opponents, Gannon came away that game with a 41-22 edge in kills. The Knights left the floor with a dominating nine aces.

The win came after a loss to Mercyhurst Oct. 9.

Coach Matt Darling said he was pleased with the win.

“This was a much needed win for us after Tuesday night’s loss,” he said. “We all feel good to be back on the winning track.”

Opening the match with a 19-3 run — one of the Knights’ longest runs of the year — things quickly started to turn in favor of Gannon.

However, Edinboro regained some momentum as Gannon was trapped in a rotation for 10 points allowing Edinboro to cut the score to only a 6-point lead.

Gannon regained its stride with a 4-0 run that all began with a resounding kill from freshman hitter Kayla Knickerbocker.

Senior Lauren Sazama led Gannon with her usual kills the entire match, but every player on the court for Gannon contributed in a different way. Freshman Jenny Olson shocked the coaching staff and several fans who attended when she turned in a career-high performance.

Totaling seven kills on 15 touches, five digs and an ace led coach Darling to say he was glad with his decision to play the freshman.

“Jenny played great tonight.” he said. “Really gave us a great spark off the bench.”

Darling also said the team’s defensive effort and passing had improved from the loss to the Lakers.

Gannon used talented middles senior Sarah Glancy and freshman Lynne Hibbard to take on the Scots. Sophomore Megan Wendel contributed 31 assists and six digs, one kill and two aces helping the Knights flow perfectly together.

“Megan set a great match,” Darling said.

Improving to an overall record of 17-4 and a PSAC record of 9-2, Gannon returns to action Friday.

Traveling to Clarion University, the Knights will take on the No. 1 ranked team in the Western Division for a tough battle at 7 p.m. Both teams are closely matched in skill and have the high intensity that is needed to win. With Clarion the top team in the West, the game leaves the Knights with little room for error if they hope to overtake the Golden Eagles.

BECKY HILKER

hilker001@knights.gannon.edu

The Knights were nearly flawless once again, winning all four PSAC Crossover matches while taking all but one set in the process.

Friday and Saturday’s games marked the first conference games, giving the Knights a half-game lead for first place over Clarion, Slippery Rock, California and Indiana universities of Pennsylvania in the PSAC West. Gannon improved to 12-2 overall.

Gannon began the weekend by making quick work of Millersville University with wins of 25-17, 25-20 and 25-18 Friday and followed it up with a four-set win over host Lock Haven University with scores of 25-21, 25-21, 22-5 and 25-18. Gannon’s lone hiccup in the third set marked the first time an opponent won a set since Gannon lost a five-set match to Ohio Dominican Sept. 8.

The Knights were in nearly perfect symmetry, as the offense racked up 37 kills against Millersville and 58 against Lock Haven, while the defense contributed 22 blocks in each game. The stingy Knights defense did a job on Lock Haven’s three-time PSAC East Player of the Year Xuan Gao to just eight kills and a .074 hitting percentage.

Lauren Sazama once again led the offense with 41 kills Friday.

“I think we’re all clicking now and all parts of the team are playing as one,” Sazama said. “We could be even better than last year, because we play so consistent and what we lost in some areas, we’re making up on digs.”

Gannon carried its momentum into Sunday when they steamrolled over Shippensburg and East Stroudsburg universities in three sets at East Stroudsburg.

The Knights were tested in the third set against Shippensburg, as they trailed 23-17 and looked to be heading toward a fourth set. However, 10 points later—nine of which belonged to Gannon— a fourth set proved needless.

Against East Stroudsburg, the Knights showed no such vulnerability, as they overwhelmed the Warriors 25-15, 25-15 and 25-16. Gannon held East Stroudsburg to a miniscule .010 hitting percentage.

“So far this year we’ve depended on our offense for the majority of our points,” coach Matt Darling said. “Today we were able to defend much better and force our opponents into some errors.”

One of the younger players who has stepped up to fill the void left has been sophomore Megan Wendel, who dished out 50 assists against Lock Haven and followed it up with 67 helpers Saturday. Her 493 assists this season has already topped her freshman total from a year ago and is among the PSAC’s leaders.

As a team, Gannon has enjoyed great efficiency this season, ranking first in the PSAC with a .280 hitting percentage while committing just 191 errors all season.

Beginning PSAC play brings with it familiarity for the Knights, who kick off PSAC West play this weekend, when they host California University of Pennsylvania Friday and Indiana University of Pennsylvania Saturday.

Sazama said the conference games bring a sense of familiarity.

“We know these teams better because we play them several times a year,” she said. “It’s better to play against them because we exchange tape with them instead of having to play them blind like we do non-conference.”

Gannon split a pair regular season matches with Indiana and Cal last season, the latter of which swept the Knights en route to the conference title in November. Friday’s game will be Gannon’s first match at home since its loss to Ohio Dominican at the beginning of the month.

JOE CUNEO

cuneo001@knights.gannon.edu

Not only have they shown how much they are dedicated to the team with early practices, long hours on the court, daily workouts and even longer hours preparing mentally they have shown how much they want to win.

Not everybody has the mentality to stay with all of this commitment and hard work, but these women are leading examples. They have shown this by beating some of their hardest competitors and making a strong impact on this year’s season.

The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference-West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference crossover tournament held in Indiana, Pa., during the weekend was successful in every way for the Knights. They came away with three wins with 3-0 sets against Seton Hill University, West Virginia Wesleyan College and Alderson-Broaddus College.

They first beat Seton Hill – 25-21, 25-18, 25-19 – on Friday and then beat West Virginia Wesleyan – 25-22, 25-17, 25-18 – and Alderson-Broaddus – 25-11, 25-14, 25-14 – on Saturday.

Coach Matt Darling, an assistant professor in Gannon’s English department, said that although he thinks the team hasn’t quite hit its stride yet this season, he liked many of the things he saw this weekend.

“Sarah Glancy was terrific,” he said. “I’ve been hoping that someone on the team would be ready to extend her game beyond her comfort zone to help the team, and Sarah did that. If a few more players put in that kind of mental and physical effort every match, we can get where we want to be.”

The team’s hard work is clearly paying off. With a 5-2 home turf record and an overall 8-2 mark, the team has its sights set high. This weekend, the Knights will take on Millersville University and Lock Haven University Friday during the PSAC East-West crossover tournament, held at Lock Haven.

Millersville, home of the Marauders, has an overall record of 6-4 and Lock Haven, home of the Bald Eagles, has an overall record of 3-5. Millersville’s kills/set percentages are only 11.5 percent, while Lock Haven has 11.8 percent. The Knights, meanwhile, have 13.6 percent.

With Gannon’s block average of 55.5 percent and its dig percentage at 14.4 , the Knights should have another successful weekend.

In previous years Gannon has had matches against both

Millersville and Lock Haven. They beat both teams with ease in every set. When facing Lock Haven last September, Gannon dominated each set with victories of 25-17, 25-19 and 25-17. Then, just a day later, they continued their success when they beat Millersville with 25-15, 25-15 and 25-19.

The Knights will also play Shippensburg University and East Stroudsburg University this weekend, at the PSAC East-West crossover tournament hosted at East Stroudsburg Saturday.

The tournament is held to decide which teams from the East and West sections of the PSAC conference. It consists of Millersville, Lock Haven, Shippensburg, East Shippensburg, California University of Pennsylvania, Chenney University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown University, Mercyhurst University, West Chester University, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Clarion University, Slippery Rock University, the University of Findlay and, of course, the Knights.

BECKY HILKER

hilker001@knights.gannon.edu

The Knights had a pristine start to the tournament with sweeps of West Virginia State University and Lake Erie College on Friday, led by a solid defensive effort from sophomore libero Taryn Graham, who racked up 36 digs in two matches, 23 of which were against Lake Erie.

Graham said her main goal for the weekend was to focus for every point and to pass every ball as perfectly as possible.

“I play for the hitters,” she said. “I want to pass good balls for them. You have to play for each other, not for yourself.”

Senior outside hitter Lauren Sazama led the team at the net, tallying 39 kills Friday and chipping in another 40 on Saturday, an effort that earned her the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division Player of the Week for the first time this season and fifth time of her career.

Gannon finished off Holy Family University in four sets, a match in which every Knight made an appearance in at least one set.

“One of the reasons we’re able to be successful year after year is we’re able to get people on the court, and we want to take advantage of those opportunities,” coach Matt Darling said. “I thought people did a great job.”

Darling named sophomore middle hitter Emily Meyer, freshman middle hitter Lynne Hibbard and junior defensive specialist Lexie Weissinger as players who stepped into their roles and performed well.

Senior middle hitter Sarah Glancy also said she was proud of her younger teammates’ ability to maintain composure.

“It showed that we have enough depth to win games,” she said.

The Knight nearly went for the cycle until an obstinate Ohio Dominican University outlasted them in five sets.

Darling said that the Knights struggled to close the match out, which was uncharacteristic for them during the three preceding matches.

“Their greatest strength against us was that they were willing to play five sets,” he said. “They were going to play hard as long as the match went on.”

Glancy said she thought the team was well prepared physically, but may have needed to find some mental toughness.

“We’ve conditioned really well,” she said. “I don’t think any of us were so tired we couldn’t have pushed through it, but maybe mentally we were. And that’s something we’ve been working on in practice this week.”

Darling also added that the team had pushed to finish other tight sets over the course of the weekend, namely against West Virginia State and Holy Family.

“We just needed to win one more, and we would be talking about a 4-0 weekend,” he said. “At the beginning of the season, if you would have said, ‘Hey, how about 5-2 after the first two weekends?’ I would have said deal.”

The grueling tournament weekends are something Darling said he is not fond of, but that the team will have to learn to adapt to them now in order to prepare for regional tournament play this weekend at Lock Haven University.

“We’ve got to be ready mentally for what that grind is,” he said. “It’s not ideal, and it takes a lot of toll on us, but we have to be ready to play under those types of conditions.

Despite the loss, Darling said the team learned several important lessons as a result.

“If we’re lucky enough to be up 2-0 in a match, I think it helps us focus to get that third set,” he said. “But it also shows us that we might be down 2-0 but if we steal one in the third set, you never know.”

The team will hope to carry this lesson with them as they travel to Lock Haven Friday and Saturday to play three matches – Seton Hill University, West Virginia Wesleyan College and Alderson-Broaddus College – of which Darling said they must win at least two.

“We really need to dial it in,” he said. “These teams pick off some of the teams from the conference, and we can’t be one of them.”

The team’s only two losses of the season have both been sustained at home, and Darling said he thinks this should help instill even greater determination as they travel to play at a neutral location.

“It puts us into the mindset that we have to fight for everything, which is where we need to be anyway,” he said. “It gives us a chance to say, alright, no advantage. Let’s find a way to win.”

Gannon will take on Seton Hill Friday at 5 p.m., and West Virginia Wesleyan and Alderson-Broaddus Saturday at 12 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.

CHRISTINE PEFFER

Peffer002@knights.gannon.edu