The Gannon University volleyball team continued its dominant undefeated start to the season at the Concord Classic, winning four games in two days to improve to 11-0.
The Knights, ranked No. 16 in Division II, dropped only one of 13 sets at the event, held Thursday and Friday in West Virginia.
That lone lost set, which came in the first game of its final match of the weekend, was the first since the team’s opening set of 2018 against Lake Erie College.
Gannon swept the University of Virginia’s College at Wise (25-20, 25-14, 25-12), Concord University (28-26, 25-10, 25-8) and King University (25-13, 25-17, 25-22) and defeated Kentucky State University in four sets (24-26, 25-7, 25-14, 25-10).
The Knights made easy work of just about every set as only four of the 13 sets saw the opponent crack the 20-point mark.
On the opening day of the tournament, Gannon’s Matt Darling picked up his 250th career victory as head coach of the Knights.
In game one against UVA-Wise, Gannon used an early four-point run to take a 13-7 lead. Another 4-0 un highlighted by a pair of kills from freshman Ashley McClung ended the first set at 25-20.
In set two, freshman Lauren Sampson’s ace got the Knights out to an early 5-2 lead.
A later kill by Sampson extended the lead to 12-6 before Gannon pulled away to a 25-13 second-set victory.
Gannon opened the third, and deciding, set with a 4-0 lead and never lost it on their way to a commanding 25-12 final-set victory.
The Knights took advantage of hot starts as they opened the second set with an 11-1 lead, bolted to a 6-0 lead in the third and ended the final set by scoring the final 11 points.
Gannon had three players — Lanman, Sampson and Ally Smith — with 10 or more kills in the match.
Up next, Gannon will continue its long road swing to begin its Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference schedule with a pair of matches Friday and Saturday at East Stroudsburg and Kutztown, respectively.

MATT FASSNACHT
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