After 11 straight matches on the road, the Pitt-Johnstown volleyball team made its 2022 home debut in the Sports Center, Tuesday evening, and came away with a lopsided 25-8, 25-14, 25-6 non-conference sweep over Salem (WV) University. Lualis Alvarado posted match-highs of 13 kills, a .632 hitting percentage, and five service aces to help the Mountain Cats even their record at 6-6.
 
Salem kept the opening set tight early, but Pitt-Johnstown broke open a two-point match with an 18-3 run to take it 25-8.  Ten unanswered points, including a service ace from Liredys Casiano and a pair of Tigers' errors helped the Mountain Cats open-up a 17-5 lead.  Pitt-Johnstown the got three aces from Alvarado and a kill from Christen Maloney to finish the 17-point win.
 
In the second set, the Mountain Cats raced out to a 10-3 lead on kills from Alvarado and Katelyn Courtney.  Salem battled back to narrow it to 14-12 on consecutive kills from Makhia Hinton, but that was as close as it would get.  Pitt-Johnstown went on to outscore Salem 11-2 the rest of the way to take a two-set-to-none advantage with Courtney's kill.
 
It was all Pitt-Johnstown in the final set.  Two kills each from Abi Leitner and Alvarado, followed by an Ally Diamond ace gave the Mountain Cats a 13-3 lead and Pitt-Johnstown wrapped-up the sweep with a 25-6 victory.
 
Along with Alvarado's 13 kills, Leitner had seven kills and Malloy Pinske added five kills. And Courtney had four kills and a pair of solo blocks for Pitt-Johnstown.
 
Adiamar Beaz finished with a match-high 20 assists and nine digs, while Gabi DeRenzo collected a match-high 10 digs, and Casiano had seven assists and three of the Mountain Cats' 12 aces.
 
Tiyana Brown, Alycia Rivera, Hinton all had three kills for Salem, which fell to 0-17.
 
Pitt-Johnstown opens PSAC West-play against California (PA), Friday at 7 p.m. in the Sports Center, before traveling to Gannon for a conference match on Saturday.