CLARION – Clarion University’s women’s volleyball team will be hosting  the six-team Holiday Inn/Clarion Classic Friday and Saturday at Tippin Gym.

In addition to the Golden Eagles, Lees-McRae (NC), Concordia (NY) and Wheeling Jesuit (W.Va.) will join PSAC schools Slippery Rock and Shippensburg.

"We have a lot of competitive teams coming in," Clarion head coach Tracey Fluharty said. "I don’t think any team has an easy game. It will come down to which
team plays the hardest.

"Even though it is our home tournament, we have a lot of challenging games ahead of us if we want to defend our title from last year. It will be a very challenging weekend."

Setter Jackie Hill (563 set assists), outside hitter Melanie Bull (196 kills, 183 digs), outside hitter Tonya Zatko (124 kills, 44 blocks), Libero Laurie Hepler (192 digs), middle hitter Beth Stalder (123 kills, 40 blocks), outside hitter Sara Heyl (105 kills, 97 digs) and middle hitter Colleen Sherk (100 kills, 70 blocks) pace Clarion (14-1).

Lenka Jarmichova (554 set assists) and Jill Morrison (207 kills, 253 digs) are the top performers for Lees-McRae (9-10), while Elise Maier (480 set assists), Jamie Cahoon (208 kills) and Esther Cortorreal (322 digs) lead Concordia (11-2).

Sarah Cybulski (498 set assists, 210 digs) and Jen Howser (173 digs) are the leaders for
Slippery Rock (10-5), and Kelly Laughlin (145 kills, 163 digs) and Alyssa Kilgore (105 kills, 139
digs) pace Shippensburg (2-14). Kirstin Hearn (740 set assists), Kim Melinauskas (194 kills) and Waleska Carrion (167 kills, 203 digs) are the key players for Wheeling Jesuit (17-5).

Clarion has played two of the five teams this season beating Shippensburg 3-0 last Saturday at the PSAC Crossovers at California and topping Slippery Rock 3-1 Tuesday at Clarion.

The tournament gets started Friday at 2 p.m. with Clarion and Concordia and Slippery Rock and Shippensburg meeting. Clarion also plays at 4 p.m. (Slippery Rock) and 8 p.m. (Shippensburg) Friday and at 9 a.m. (Wheeling Jesuit) and 4 p.m. (Lees-McRae) Saturday.