WHEELING, W.Va. -- In the first ever NCAA regional semifinal appearance for the Yellow Jackets, the Jackets fell to the Golden Knights of Gannon University in straight sets, 25-19, 25-20, 25-17. The Yellow Jackets end their season at 30-5 and Gannon improves to 30-6.
Jenna Dufresne led the offense with eight kills and Gabrielle Bullock added seven. Kiersten Eggleton picked up her 10th double-double of the season with 13 assists and 12 digs. Peri Martin added 14 assists. Rachelle Madison dug out 11 attacks and libero Alex Darby added 10 digs.
The first set started rough for the Jackets with Gannon scoring 18 points to just 9 for WVSU. The Jackets were hitting at a .080 clip. Coach Kern was not happy with that and called timeout. Gannon then gifted the Yellow Jackets with five consecutive errors - four attack errors, aided by two blocks and a ball-handling error - which forced a timeout from the Golden Knights at 18-14. The teams traded the next ten points, but that just brought the Golden Knights closer to set point before a kill for Gannon sealed it off, 25-19. The Yellow Jackets hit at just .053 for the set, their lowest of the season in a single set. Dufresne had four kills and Beer had two. MEC blocking leader had a solo block and three block assists.
WVSU started the second set strong, jumping out to a rapid 6-3 lead on the back of two Bullock kills, two Gannon attack errors, a Rachelle Madison service ace, and a Gannon service error. That lead all but evaporated when Gannon slammed four of the next five points. The Golden Knights took a 12-10 lead that led to a Yellow Jacket timeout. The two teams traded points back and forth for the next 10 rallies. An Emily Davis slam and Bullock's second of the match tied it back up at 17. Six more rallies of traded points and Gannon called timeout at 20-all. Gannon scored the next five points to take the second and a commanding two sets to none lead. Dufresne picked up two kills in the set. The Jackets recorded just one block in the set, a solo rejection by Grace Martin. Jackets hit .237 in the set.
The third set started off just like the first two sets with the two teams playing chicken with each other to see who would blink first. Gannon scored 3 straight to go up 12-9 to which Kern called his first timeout of the set. It was the start of a 13-6 run for the Golden Knights to close out the match and the Jackets never got closer then 3 points after the timeout at 16-13 after a Dufresne kill and ended up dropping the set and the match 25-17. WVSU's touted blocking ability netted zero rejections in the third set.
WVSU hit just .169 for the match - their third lowest hitting percentage of the year - compared to Gannon's .336. Gannon had 57 slams to the Yellow Jackets 32. Both teams had six blocks and two service aces.
The Yellow Jackets will look forward to the 2022 season when they add in the new class of recruits and look to build on all of the accolades of this season including new program record 30 wins, second consecutive Mountain East Conference South Division title, first appearance in the NCAA Atlantic Regional tournament since 2008 and first appearance in the Round of 32.
