Lualis Alvarado's match and career-high 23 kills could not overcome Gannon's balanced attack as the Golden Knights beat Pitt-Johnstown 3-1 (25-15, 15-25, 25-23, 25-18) on Saturday afternoon at the Sports Center.

The Mountain Cats fell to 7-16 overall (1-9 in the PSAC West).

Gannon never trailed in the first set after opening up a 7-0 lead to start.

With the second set tied at three, Pitt-Johnstown strung together a 6-0 run to take control. From there, the Mountain Cats would go up by as many as 11 at 23-12 on a kill from Alvarado to tie the match at 1-all.

The third set was tied on eight different occasions. One of Abi Leitner's six kills knotted the set for the final time at 22-all. 

A kill by Hailey Koch and a service ace from Emma Hall put the Golden Knights in front 24-22 and forced the Mountain Cats to call a timeout. Alvarado put Pitt-Johnstown within a point, but an attack error gave Gannon a 2-1 advantage.

Maggie Greenfield collected a team-high 13 kills for Gannon, which improved to 15-5 and 9-1 in conference play. Sam Deinek and Koch each added nine kills and Madde Blake had six. Bengisu Arslan dished out 32 assists. Hall racked up a match-high 28 digs, while Blake had 12.

Pitt-Johnstown had the fourth set tied at 16-all, but a 4-0 run sparked by a kill from Blake gave Gannon a 20-16 lead it would never relinquish.

For the second consecutive game, Natalie Lippincott tied her season-high in kills with 10 and added two blocks. Adiamar Beaz racked up a match-high 40 assists and had 19 digs and two aces. Gabi DeRenzo led the Mountain Cats defensively with 23 digs. Alvarado chipped in nine digs, while Karin Ilagan provided eight.

Pitt-Johnstown hosts Point Park in a nonconference match on Tuesday at 5 p.m.