Perennial power Wheeling Jesuit (WV) University spotted the Pitt-Johnstown volleyball team a one-set lead, but answered to win the next three to secure a four-set victory in Saturday's final round of the West Liberty/Wheeling Jesuit Crossover Tournament in Wheeling, W.Va.  Marissa Erminio collected 11 kills and 13 digs, and Maura Brehl added nine kills and a pair of blocks for the Mountain Cats, who slipped to 10-3.
 
Pitt-Johnstown took the opening set, 25-21, but the Cardinals responded with 25-19, 25-12, and 25-15 wins to close it out.
 
Pitt-Johnstown got off to a good start and took advantage of nine Wheeling Jesuit errors to take the opening set, 25-21.  Four straight Cardinals' errors followed by an Erminio kill put the Mountain Cats up, 14-10.  Devan Orr's service ace capped the 9-2 run to make it 18-12, before Wheeling Jesuit outscored Pitt-Johnstown 7-2 to cut the deficit to 20-19 on a Cassie Meyer kill and a Mountain Cat error.  That was as close as the Cardinals would get.  Erminio's kill and another Wheeling Jesuit error increased it to 23-19 and Caitlin Vrabel closed out the set with a kill of her own.
 
In the second set, Wheeling Jesuit scored five straight points to climb out to a 12-7 lead on Alleah Stauffer's ace, before Pitt-Johnstown clawed back to within on kills from Brehl and Erminio sandwiched around Kendall Mahony's ace.  However, the Cardinals rebuilt their lead to four, before evening the match with the 25-19 win on Stephanie Sylvester's kill and a Mountain Cat error.
 
Wheeling Jesuit scored the first five points of the third set and led wire-to-wire in the 25-12 victory.  After jumping out to the early lead, the Cardinals got a kill from Haley Kramer to go up 16-8 and went on to the victory.
 
The Cardinals started fast in the fourth set and built a five-point lead, before Pitt-Johnstown battled back to narrow the gap to 14-13 on another ace from Orr.  However, Wheeling Jesuit regained control and used a 14-5 run to seal the 3-sets-to-1 victory with the 25-15 win.
 
Along with Erminio and Brehl, the Mountain Cats got seven kills, six digs, and two blocks from Vrabel, six kills, nine digs, and three blocks from Cambria Wierman, and six kills from Noelle Carota.  Kendall Mahony also had four kills and six blocks.
 
J.C. Longville paced Pitt-Johnstown with 21 set assists and 11 digs, while Allison Mondorff had 18 assists and 13 digs.  Orr had 27 digs and three aces.
 
Maddy Smyth tallied a match-high 14 kills and three blocks to lead three Wheeling Jesuit players who had double-digit kills.  Meyer had 12 kills and 17 digs, and Kramer added 11 kills and three blocks for the Cardinals, who improved to 8-4.
 
After nearly a month on the road to begin the season, Pitt-Johnstown makes its 2017 home debut in the Sports Center with PSAC matches against Edinboro on September 22 at 7 p.m. and Slippery Rock on September 23 at 1 p.m.