Despite taking a 2-1 match lead, Pitt-Johnstown could not hold off Shippensburg as the Raiders snatched a 25-19, 19-25, 16-25, 25-17, 15-11 victory at the Sports Center on Tuesday night.
Mallory Pinske, who recorded a match-high five blocks, and Lualis Alvarado each collected nine kills to guide the Mountain Cats, who dropped to 7-12 overall (1-5 in PSAC West play).
The Mountain Cats held short-lived one-point leads of 7-6 and 9-8 in the final set. But with the set tied at 10-all, two kills by Kat Negron and a kill by Oyinda Agbale that closed it out were part of a 5-1 game-winning run by Shippensburg, which improved 10-9 (3-2 in PSAC East).
Rachel Verhoef paced the Raiders with a match-high 16 kills. Agbale racked up 11 kills and two blocks, while Negron added six kills and a match-high eight aces. Kearstin Davis dished out a match-high 41 assists.
The Mountain Cats came out on the wrong end of an opening set that was tied on nine different occasions. With the set knotted at 19-all, back-to-back kills by Jackie Sterenberg, who finished with seven kills, and Kaitlyn Townsend sparked a 6-0 run that led the Raiders to a 1-0 lead.
Pitt-Johnstown went up by as many as six two separate times in the second set. After the Raiders tied it at 19, the Mountain Cats received a kill apiece from Pinske and Alvarado and capitalized on three attack errors to tie the match at 1-all.
The Mountain Cats would never trail in the third frame after a service error by the Raiders gave them a 7-6 lead early. Abi Leitner tallied an ace and three of her seven kills to help seize the set.
Back-to-back Raider attack errors allowed the Mountain Cats to knot the fourth set at 9. But after being up by one, 16-15, Shippensburg gave itself some breathing room with a 6-0 run powered by three consecutive aces from Negron to push its lead to 22-16 and roll from there.
Reagan Morris totaled five kills for Pitt-Johnstown. Adiamar Beaz had 18 assists and three aces. Liredys Casiano provided 17 assists, 11 digs and two aces. Gabi DeRenzo and Alvarado each had 13 digs.
Pitt-Johnstown visits Edinboro at 6 p.m. on Friday, followed by a trip to Mercyhurst on Saturday at 1 p.m.
