Marissa Erminio had nine kills and
Noelle Carota added eight kills to lead a balanced attack that saw five Pitt-Johnstown players have five or more kills in a 3-sets-to-none sweep over Lake Erie (OH) College in Friday's Second Round of the Ashland (OH) University/Quality Inn Tournament. Pitt-Johnstown improved to 2-0.
After taking the first set 25-23, the Mountain Cats completed the sweep with 25-18 and 25-22 victories.
Pitt-Johnstown spotted Lake Erie a 3-point lead to start, but battled back behind three
Cambria Wierman kills and a Storm error to take its first lead at 8-7. Later in the set, Lake Erie used three straight Brooke Peiffer kills to rebuild its lead to 23-19, but the Mountain Cats answered with six straight points of their own to take the set. A pair of Erminio kills, sandwiched around two Lake Erie errors, followed by Wierman's fourth and fifth kills of the set gave Pitt-Johnstown the 25-23 win.
In the second set, Pitt-Johnstown broke a 7-7 tie with a 9-4 run to build a 5-point advantage and went on to the 25-18 victory. Kendal Mahony and Erminio's combined block got the lead to four, and Mahony's kill ended the run to make it 16-11. The Mountain Cats never let the Storm get closer than four the rest of the way and got kills from
Maura Brehl and Carota to end the set and go up two-sets-to-none.
Lake Erie climbed out to a 10-7 lead on Courtney Rosebrook's kill, but Pitt-Johnstown kept it close and eventually regained the lead, 20-19, on
Allison Mondorff and Brehl's block and a Storm attack error. The Mountain Cats never trailed again and wrapped-up their second sweep of the day with the 25-22 victory on Carota's kill.
Erminio had nine kills, seven digs, and four blocks, and Carota tallied eight kills and a block to pace Pitt-Johnstown. Brehl finished with seven kills and a pair of blocks, while Wierman had six kills and eight digs, and
Caitlin Vrabel had five kills and two blocks. Mahony added three kills and four blocks.
J.C Longeville led the way with a match-high 18 set assists and eight digs, and Mondorff chipped-in 15 assists and seven digs.
Devan Orr's 13 digs tied for match-high with Lake Erie's Hallie Zumack.
The Storm, who fell to 1-1, was led by Peiffer's match-high 10 kills and Bethany Fisher's eight kills.
Pitt-Johnstown will wrap-up the Ashland Tournament on Saturday with matches against Truman State (MO) at 11:30 a.m. and Ashland at 7 p.m., before traveling to a non-conference match at Point Park on Tuesday.
