Wheeling, WV – The Gannon Knights withstood a late charge from Mercyhurst Thursday afternoon to advance in four sets to the Atlantic Region semi-finals for women's volleyball.

Gannon opened the first set falling behind one to nothing, but scored the next four points and never relinquished the lead. The Lakers pulled the set to 22-12 before Gannon closed out the set on an Emily Carver kill to make it 25-13.

The tightly contested second set saw the Lakers come to life after a sprawling dig by Elyse Texido and eventually taking the lead 15-14. After a Gannon timeout and a Mercyhurst block, the Lakers took a 20-16 lead with Amanda Balasko serving. The Knights pull within four at 20-24 before Balasko killed the final point giving Mercyhurst the second set 25-20.

The third set was filled with small runs by both teams. The Lakers led by four early at 11-to-seven before Gannon went on a run of their own to tie the set at 11. The teams exchanged point and neither team could extend a lead to more than two until the Knights capitalized on a service error by Mercyhurst to close out the third set 26-24 with a kill by Lauren Sazama.

With Taryn Graham serving to start the fourth set, the Knights opened up a six-to-one lead. Mercyhurst countered to tie the set at seven before Gannon regained the lead and pushed the margin to seven at 16-to-nine. Gannon added to their lead eventually pushing the margin to 11. The Lakers made a late set rally cutting the lead to one at 24-23. The Mercyhurst rally would fall just short as a reverse shot by Megan Wendel ended the set and the match at 25-23.

Mercyhurst concludes the season 25-11. The Lakers were led in the match by Becky Leusch who had 12 kills, Kiera Rebert provided 17 assists.

Gannon improves to 29-5 on the season and advances to the 5 pm semi-final on Friday to face California (PA).