Mallory Pinske and eight kills and six blocks, and
Abi Leitner added eight kills for the Mountain Cats, but Edinboro dealt the Pitt-Johnstown volleyball team a 25-14, 25-14, 27-25 PSAC West setback, Friday evening in Edinboro. The Mountain Cats are now 7-13 overall and 1-6 in conference-play.
After a kill from
Reagan Morris and an Edinboro attack error gave Pitt-Johnstown an early one-point lead, the Fighting Scots followed with a 14-4 run to go on top, 18-9, on a pair of Sally Sterkel kills and a Mountain Cat attack error. Three quick points from Pitt-Johnstown, including a block by Pinske and
Christen Maloney, cut the deficit to six, but Edinboro went on to take the set, 25-14.
In the second set, the Mountain Cats held an early two-point advantage, before Edinboro caught fire and scored nine unanswered points to go up 18-9. A service ace from
Adiamar Beaz, followed by Pinske's block got Pitt-Johnstown as close as seven. However, The Fighting Scots took a two-sets-to-none lead with their second 25-14 win on kills from Bella Burrelli and Jessie Michel.
A kill by
Natalie Lippincott and two from Leitner gave the Mountain Cats a 7-4 lead to begin the third set. Pitt-Johnstown pushed it out to 14-9 on three straight Edinboro attack errors and maintained the lead until Edinboro clawed
back to tie it on an Erica Sharpe kill and regain the lead, 19-18, on a Mountain Cat attack error. Another ace from Beaz gave the lead back to Pitt-Johnstown, 23-22, but the Fighting Scots were able to close out the match with a narrow, 27-25 victory on Alicia Eldridge and Sharpe's combined block.
Along with Pinske and Leitner, the Mountain Cats got three kills and a block from Morris, and a pair of kills and three blocks from Lippincott.
Beaz led the way for Pitt-Johnstown with eight assists, 14 digs and two aces, while
Gabi DeRenzo collected a team-high 16 digs for the Mountain Cats.
Edinboro, which made it three consecutive wins and improved to 15-4 overall and 5-2 in the PSAC West, got a match-high nine kills from Natalie Pallone. The Fighting Scots also used eight kills and three blocks from Eldridge and seven kills and five blocks from Sharpe.
The Mountain Cats travel to PSAC West matches at Mercyhurst on Saturday and California (PA) on Tuesday, before returning home to host a conference match against Gannon on Oct. 15 at 2 p.m. in the Sports Center to begins a stretch of three consecutive home matches.
