Maura Brehl led Pitt-Johnstown with nine kills, six digs, and two blocks, but 21
st-ranked Gannon proved to be too much in a 25-12, 25-22, 25-14 PSAC sweep over the Mountain Cats, Friday night in Erie. Pitt-Johnstown had its three-match winning streak snapped and slipped to 13-11 overall and 7-5 in the PSAC Central Division.
Pitt-Johnstown fell behind early in the opening set, but used a 7-1 run, capped by a pair of
Hailey Mackenthun service aces, to go up 11-8. However, Gannon stormed back to outscore the Mountain Cats 17-1 thee rest of the way. A combined block from Lauren Sampson and Lexi Johnstown closed out a 12-0 run that gave the Golden Knights a 20-11 lead, before Ashley McClung's kills ended the set.
Kills by
Anna Johns and
Maura Brehl gave Pitt-Johnstown a two-point advantage to being the second set, buy Gannon battled back to regain the lead 12-8 on Johnson's kill. The Mountain Cats kept it close and cut it to one on three occasions with the last coming at 16-15 on a Golden Knights' attack error. After Gannon pushed it out to 20-15, a block from
Caitlin Vrabel and
J.C. Longeville got Pitt-Johnstown back to within two, but the Golden Knights were able to hold on for the 25-22 win.

In the third set, Gannon erased a one-point deficit with a 12-2 spurt to take a 15-6 lead on back-to-back kills from Sampson and a Mountain Cat attack error. The Golden Knights extended it to 22-12 and went on to the three-set sweep with a 25- on a Laura Bebinger ace and a Sampson kill.
Along with Brehl,
Grace Miller had seven kills and four digs, while Carota had four kills, and Johns tallied three kills and two blocks to lead Pitt-Johnstown.
Longeville had 17 set assists and eight digs, and
Erin Carmody added five assists and six digs for the Mountain Cats.
Sampson's match-high 14 kills and five digs helped Gannon made it 11 straight wins and improve to 22-1 overall and 11-1 in the PSAC Northwest Division. The Golden Knights also got seven kills from McClung and six kills and a match-high seven blocks from Kerestes.
Pitt-Johnstown travels to a PSAC match at Mercyhurst on Saturday, before returning home to host conference matches against Edinboro on October 26 at 7 p.m. and Slippery Rock on October 27 at 1 p.m. in the Sports Center.