The Pitt-Johnstown women's volleyball team will kick-off PSAC-play and the home portion of their schedule with conference matches on Friday and Saturday.  The Mountain Cats will host Shepherd (WV) University on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Sports Center and Shippensburg University on Saturday at 1 p.m.
 
Pitt-Johnstown, winners of six consecutive matches, comes in at 7-2 after defeating Lake Erie (OH) College and Urbana (OH) University at last weekend's Lake Erie Tri-Match in Painesville, Ohio
 
Jaden Gray had a match-high 15 kills, while Grace Miller and Caitlin Vrabel had 14 and 11 kills, respective in Saturday's five-set win over Lake Erie.  Vrabel then added 12 kills and Miller had 10 more kills in the five set win over Urbana.
 
Shepherd, in its first season in the PSAC after leaving the Mountain East Conference (MEC), set a school win streak mark of 12 matches and enters Friday's match at 12-0 after sweeping Emmanuel (MA) College, Concord (WV) University, and Lee (TN) University last weekend.
 
Pitt-Johnstown has won the last five meetings between the two teams, including a 3-0 sweep over the Rams in the last meeting on October 20, 2015 in Shepherdstown, W.Va.
 
Shippensburg, under 16^th-year Head Coach Leanne Piscotty, lost its last two matches and was 8-3 prior to Friday's match at Indiana (PA).  The Raiders went 2-2 at last weekend's West Liberty/Wheeling Jesuit Invitational.  Shippensburg opened with wins over Notre Dame (OH) College and West Liberty (WV) University, then suffered losses to Fairmont State (WV) University and #23 Wheeling (WV) University.
 
Pitt-Johnstown and Shippensburg split a pair of matches last season.  On October 2 in Shippensburg, the Mountain Cats defeated the Raiders in five sets behind Maura Brehl's 21 kills, but Shippensburg answered with a three-set sweep in the Sports Center on October 30.  Samantha Webber had nine kills and Gabriella Johnson collected seven kills for the Raiders.
 
Following Saturday's match against Shippensburg, Pitt-Johnstown travels to PSAC matches at Millersville and West Chester next weekend, before hosting conference matches against East Stroudsburg on October 11 and Kutztown on October 12.