Box | Tournament site
Final cumulative stats
POTSDAM, N.Y. -- Nazareth's women's volleyball season came to an abrupt end Friday as the fifth-seeded Golden Flyers dropped a four-set match to host Clarkson in the first round of the NCAA Division III New York Regional at the Golden Knights' Alumni Gymnasium.

Clarkson won by scores of 25-13, 20-25, 25-13, 25-22 to improve to 29-8 while Nazareth finished 26-13. Clarkson will take on top-seeded Cortland (40-1) in the regional semifinal Saturday at 6 p.m. Third-seeded Skidmore (28-8) will play second-seeded Middlebury (22-8) in the other semifinal match at 3:30 p.m. The championship match is Sunday at 4 p.m.

The Golden Flyers struggled in the first set as Clarkson used a .480 hitting percentage (14-2-25) to take an early advantage. The Golden Flyers came back to take set two, but committed 11 hitting errors in the third set to fall behind for good. The fourth set was closer, but Clarkson used a three-point flurry near the end of the set to turn a tenuous 20-18 lead into a commanding 23-18 advantage.

For Nazareth, freshman Chelsea Beecher had nine kills with three hitting errors in 21 attempts. She also had 10 digs. Junior Amy Johnson had eight kills and freshman Maria Allocco had six. Junior setter Aubrey Cooke had 27 assists and junior libero Brittany Crocetti had 13 digs.

Becca Brabec led the Knights with a match-high 15 kills. Sara Artis added 11 kills and nine digs. Lani Durio amassed 37 assists and Erika Chin had 19 digs.