
Pitt-Johnstown, seeded fourth, erased a 2-sets-to-1 deficit behind
Marissa Erminio's match-high 25 kills to down eighth-seeded Edinboro in Friday's PSAC Semifinal match in Erie. The Mountain Cats, now 25-8 on the year, advance to take on the winner of the No. 3-seed Gannon/No. 6-seed West Chester in Saturday's finals at 7 p.m. at Gannon's Hammermill Center.
After taking the opening set 25-23, Pitt-Johnstown dropped the next two sets to Edinboro 25-22 and 25-19. However, the Mountain Cats took the fourth set 25-21 and closed it out with a 15-11 win in the final set.
In a tight set,
Cambria Wierman's kill gave Pitt-Johnstown a slim 7-5 lead. Edinboro came back tie it at eight and went in front 11-9 on two straight Mountain Cat attack errors. Pitt-Johnstown eventually took a 20-16 advantage on one of
Marissa Erminio's nine first set kills and an Fighting Scotts error. Edinboro answered with a 6-2 run to tie it at 22, but the Mountain Cats finished the 25-23 win on a pair of Wierman kills.
Edinboro evened the match with a 25-22 win in the second set. The Fighting Scots opened-up an early 3-point lead, then extended it to 17-13 on a Challen Litwiler's kill and a Pitt-Johnstown error. The Mountain Cats clawed back to knot it at 19 on
Caitlin Vrabel's service ace and an Edinboro error, but the Fighting Scots pushed it out to set point and ended it with another Litwiler kill.
The Fighting Scots kept the momentum in the fourth set and jumped out to a 10-5 lead. Edinboro made it 16-8 with a block from Paige Morris and Cierah Jackson.
Kendall Mahony's kills and a Fighting Scots' ball handling error got Pitt-Johnstown as close as five, but Jackson's kill wrapped-up Edinboro 25-19 win.
With their backs against the wall, the Mountain Cats forced a fifth and deciding set with a 25-21 victory. Pitt-Johnstown held a 3-point lead, before Edinboro0 was able to tie at 11. The Mountain Cats began to pull away and built 21-14 advantage on two Edinboro errors and a Noelle/Mahony bock. Edinboro battled back and used a 7-2 run, capped by Jackson's kill, to cut it to two, but Vrabel's kill and an attack error ended the set.
After see-sawing back-and-forth in the early going, Pitt-Johnstown broke it open. With the score tied at six, the Mountain Cats ran off six straight to double-up the Fighting Scots 12-6 with three consecutive kills from
Maura Brehl and Erminio's block. Pitt-Johnstown went on to punch its ticket to the PSAC finals on with the 15-11 victory on Vrabel's kill.
Along with her 25 kills, Erminio added 15 digs, while Wierman finished with 11 kills and 13 digs, and Mahony had nine kills and three blocks. Pitt-Johnstown also got eight kills, three aces and three blocks from Vrabel and six kills and four blocks from Brehl.
Allison Mondorff collected 28 set assists and 11 digs, and
J.C. Longeville had 25 assists for the Mountain Cats.
Devan Orr also had a match-high 25 digs.
Edinboro, which dropped to 22-10 on the year, was led by Jackson's 14 kills. Tessa Sikora chipped-in 13 kills and Litwiler had 12 kills and 24 digs for the Fighting Scots.