Great Season Comes To A Close for Golden Eagle Volleyball

| November 22, 2014

Bieranowski35WHEELING, West Virginia – Another great Clarion University women’s volleyball season came to a close Friday evening in Wheeling, W. Va., with a 3-0 loss to California (Pa.) in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region semifinals at Wheeling Jesuit.

(Photo: Carlie Bieranowski)

The third-seeded Vulcans (30-8) knocked off the second-seeded Golden Eagles (30-5) for the third time in four tries this season by scores of 25-23, 25-19, 25-23.

“It’s disappointing,” Clarion’s eighth-year head coach Jennifer Mills said. “But, as a coach, I’m definitely really proud of this team. I told the girls after the match, nobody really expected us to be where we are today being as young as we are after graduating a lot of kids from last year’s team. These kids have worked really, really hard for a 30-win season. You can’t really be too upset about that.”

Senior Carlie Bieranowski and freshman Taylor Braunagel led Clarion’s offensive attack with 10 kills each, but the Golden Eagles were limited to a .056 hitting percentage (28 kills, 21 errors, 126 attempts) by the PSAC’s stingiest defensive team.

“I think if our ball control had been a little better tonight, we would have pushed them a little more. I think that was the disappointing part. Cal did a great job and did everything they needed to do.”

Laurel Miller paced the Vulcans with 10 kills while completing a double-double with 10 digs, while Ashley Leto had seven kills and 21 digs, Danielle Hayes seven kills and Megan Fouzie seven kills and five blocks.

“It’s been an amazing season,” Clarion’s junior Libero Morgan Seybold, who had 24 digs, said. “It’s tough to lose to Cal. Cal is a great team. I think we put forth a better effort than we had before. Losing the seniors we are losing is a tough way to go out. But I couldn’t ask for a better season, couldn’t ask for better seniors, just the team as a whole.”

One of those seniors who played her final game for the Golden Eagles was setter Laura Subject, who was the PSAC West Athlete of the Year the last two season and was chosen as the Daktronics Atlantic Region Player of the Year this week. She had 23 assists, nine digs and three blocks Friday and finished her career with 4,065 career set assists, the third most in school history.

“I mean, honestly, it’s been an amazing four years,” Subject said. “I wouldn’t change it for anything. I came out from Michigan to a small school in Pennsylvania that no one at home had heard of, and it’s been a blast. I’ve had four great year. I Wouldn’t change them for a thing.”

Bieranowski chipped in 12 digs to finish her career with a double-double, while Abbey Cox had four kills and Catherine Ferragonio nine digs.

The first set was a close affair with Cal jumping out quickly to a 6-2 lead only to see Clarion gith back to take a 15-12 lead on a Braunagel kill.

The Golden Eagles still led 17-14 before a 6-3 run gave the Vulcans the set lead back at 20-19 on a Miller service ace.

Clarion scored the next two points to go back ahead 22-21, but Cal scored four of the final five points to win the set.

The Vulcans then carried that momentum into the second set jumping out to a 10-4 lead and never letting Clarion get closer than three, 17-14 and 20-17, before Cal won 25-19.

The final set was another close one with Clarion holding a 12-10 lead and a 15-14 lead before a 6-2 run gave Cal a 20-17 lead.

Clarion replied with a 4-0 run that saw Braunagel record three kills to give the Golden Eagles a 21-20 advantage but a Hayes kills tied the set at 21 and a pair of attack errors by Clarion gave the Vulcans a 23-21 lead.

Braunagel tried to keep the Golden Eagles alive with a kill to cut the deficit to 23-22, but Miller answered with a kill to make it 24-22 before Bieranowski closed the deficit back to one before Miller ended the match with another kill.

“It’s tough,” Mills said. “We’ve played them four times, and we’ve been on the losing end three time. We kind of let a couple of opportunities get away. But the nice thing is, the positive is, we have three freshmen on the court that have a huge opportunity ahead of them. We have kids who have a taste of what this feels like and being here and experiencing it on the court which I think will only help us in the future. The really tough part, like Morgan said, is losing the kids we’re losing.”

NOTES – The 30-win season is the second straight 30-win campaign for the Golden Eagles who have four 30-win seasons in school history including three since 2010 … It marked the sixth straight trip to the NCAA Division II playoffs for Clarion including a trip to the Elite Eight in 2010 … Cal will play the winner of the Seton Hill-Wheeling Jesuit game in the Regional final Saturday.


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