Shippensburg (30-9) finishes its 2015 season tied for the most wins in school history. This year's Raiders are the first team in school history to win a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championship.
 
Additionally, Thursday's appearance in the Atlantic Regional marked the first time a class of seniors: Faith Athey, Laura Plank and Taylor Gottshall, played in the NCAA Tournament in three of four career seasons.
 
"Certainly it's been a season of a lot of firsts," SU head coach Leanne Piscotty said. "It's been interesting throughout the careers of our seniors, Faith, Taylor and Laura, we've been saying a lot of that at every banquet, that they are constantly breaking records and taking the program to a new level."
 
Gottshall, a Second Team All-PSAC performer and honorable mention All-Region selection, finishes her career with gaudy blocking numbers. The Allentown native finishes with the all-time PSAC block assists record with 476 for her career. She had nine kills and six block assists in Thursday's match. Gottshall is also just one of four players ever in PSAC history to total more than 600 total blocks.
 
Athey, meanwhile, totaled 370 block assists – ninth-most in PSAC history, and 446 total blocks in her career. Teaming up with Gottshall, the middle-blocking duo combined for 1,048 total blocks, including 846 block assists. Both totals are the second-most by teammates in the history of the conference. Plank, a sturdy libero and defensive specialist for the Raiders, finished with 1,669 career digs – the fourth-most in Raider history.
 
The Raiders came out swinging well Thursday, hitting .440 with 13 kills in the first set – a convincing 25-10 victory. A back-and-forth second set that included 15 ties and nine lead changes ultimately went Gannon's way, but it appeared the Raiders found their groove again by racing out to a 9-2 lead in the third set.
 
The Golden Knights (23-10) clawed back, but the Raiders achieved a 23-16 lead before an 8-0 service run by Gannon's Morgan Walters flipped the script. Ultimately, Gannon prevailed with a 27-25 victory to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
The final set was played close like the two prior, as SU and Gannon were tied nine different times and had four lead changes before the Golden Knights scored four of the final five points to win the set and match.
 
"This team really embraces the spirit of competition," Piscotty said of her squad. "Because if you're not competing fearlessly then you're just exercising. And this team competes incredibly well."
 
Freshman Morgan DeFloria finished her incredible rookie campaign with another big match, tying a team-high with 17 kills and hitting .273. She finishes her debut season with a team-high 395 kills.
 
Junior Annie Goerl finished her 2015 season with seven double-doubles in the final nine matches as she totaled 17 kills and 17 digs. Goerl finished second on the squad with 311 kills and third on the team with 452 digs.
 
Junior setter Maura Nolan, an AVCA All-Atlantic Region pick who Piscotty referred to after the match as "the best setter in the region," finished with 33 assists, 11 digs, three kills and three block assists.
 
Sophomore Maria Peluso led SU with 24 digs and two service aces. Plank added 11 digs.
 
The hitting between the two teams was almost identical as Gannon hit .139 and the Raiders hit .135. For the match, the Golden Knights outscored SU by a total of just one point. Two of the ultimate differences proved to be defensively and on the service line, as Gannon totaled 16 blocks and seven aces to snap SU's nine-match winning streak.