By Wesley Evans

MIDDLETOWN, Pa.—The Southern Virginia University women's volleyball team defeated Penn State Harrisburg 3-0 (25-9, 25-16, 25-15) Saturday afternoon in its first contest of the Penn State Harrisburg Tri-Match in Middletown, Pennsylvania.

With the win, the Knights clinched the No. 2 seed heading in postseason play, and finish the regular season conference record at 7-2 on the year.

"We're excited to have home court advantage for the tournament next week," said Southern Virginia head coach Brittney Lee. "We'll get to have three good practices in before we host someone at our place on Thursday. I'm proud of the way we finished the regular season strong and hopefully we'll carry this momentum into next week's conference tournament."

Southern Virginia had little trouble with the Lions through all three games, recording more kills (40-10), assists (29-10) and digs (38-17) than the host team.

Freshman Vanessa Pawlak led all Knight players with eight kills to go with eight digs in the match. Junior Shannon Romito stepped up big and gave Southern Virginia seven kills of her own, while Melissa Owen and Calyn Barry had five blocks each on the defensive end of the net.

Libero April Bennett owned a team-best nine digs and setter Katelynn Tlustek helped the offense with 10 assists and three service aces.

Izabella D'Onofrio led Penn State Harrisburg with four kills.

With the No. 2 seed, Southern Virginia will sit out the opening round of the CAC Tournament on Tuesday and then host the winner of No. 3 Marymount/No. 6 Salisbury on Thursday at Knight Sports Arena. The time of the match on Thursday will soon be determined.