The Mercyhurst Women’s Volleyball team participated in turf war against their Erie rival, Gannon University on Tuesday, Sept. 20.

The Lakers gave it their all in a battle to defend their home court, but despite these efforts, they fell short to the Golden Knights with an ending of 3-1 sets in favor of Gannon.

Gannon came out strong by putting up six points early in the opening set before the Lakers scored one.

The Golden Knights built on this lead throughout the set, relying on their outside hitter, Madde Blake’s seven kills and their libero Emma Hall’s eight digs to help them win the set 25-10.

The Lakers fought back and responded with a sturdy lead to start the second set. Finding their groove, Mercyhurst was leading 11-5 before Gannon called a timeout.

The break gave the Golden Knights time to reset their efforts and they came out scoring six straight points to tie the set at 11.

After much back-and forth play, the Golden Knights came out in front to take the second set 25-21.

The Lakers found their grit and kept battling through the third set. The score reflected much back-and-forth action with neither team pulling away with a big lead.

At one point, the Lakers found themselves down with a score of 20-16 which fueled them to press forward. They went on a 7-2 run to take the lead at 23-22 and stop the momentum of the Golden Knights.

Mercyhurst ultimately pulled away with a 25-23 win in the third set because of a Gannon service error and a kill by sophomore Paige Miller.

The fight continued in the beginning of the fourth set. Miller put another kill on the stat sheet to leave the Lakers behind by a single point at 7-6.

However, Gannon fought back with a 10-4 run that gave them a strong lead which carried them into winning the set. Even though the Lakers gave their best effort, they fell to the Golden Knights in four sets.

The Lakers traveled to Edinboro University on Friday, Sept. 23 for a tough match against the Fighting Scots to which they fell in straight sets.

The first set consisted of trading points which presented a tie at six points. Edinboro got away with a small lead after this point which motivated the Lakers to fight back.

Both teams went on runs and found themselves tied at 15-15, 16-16, 17-17, and 18-18, before Edinboro pulled off a run that gave them the lead.

The Fighting Scots took the first set at 25-21.

The Lakers brought the fight to the second set with lots of back-and forth play and a Laker run to tie the set at 12. Each team took turns going on runs not exceeding more than three points in a run.

Despite their valiant effort though, Mercyhurst fell short at 25-21 in the second set. Following the pattern of the previous two sets, the third was filled with small runs from both teams, but Edinboro brought the Lakers to a halt at 19 points and finished the set at 25-19.

Senior, Kate Hennessy noted nine kills to lead the Laker stat sheet with Miller to follow with eight kills. Miller also had four aces while Zoe Gadomski had two of her own and 12 digs. Alexa Mitchell and Miller had 10 dogs that contributed to the Lakers efforts that night.

The Laker’s look forward to next Friday evening as they take on California University of Pennsylvania at 6:00 pm.