Mallory Pinske had 12 kills and three blocks, and
Lualis Alvarado added a dozen kills and eight digs to lead the Pitt-Johnstown volleyball team to a 25-18, 25-18, 25-15 PSAC Western Division sweep over Slippery Rock, Friday evening in the Sports Center. The Mountain Cats improved to 13-6 overall and 4-3 in conference-play.
It was all Mountain Cats in the opening set. Pitt-Johnstown used a
Gabi DeRenzo service ace and a Pinske kill to race out to a 10-2 lead, before
Dannika Susko's kill pushed it into double figures at 15-5. Slippery Rock battled back to narrow the gap to 22-16 on three straight Mountain Cat errors, but Pitt-Johnstown finished strong and took the set, 25-18, on
Jessica Krug's ace.
In the second set, Pitt-Johnstown spotted the Rock a four-point lead to start. The Mountain Cats came back to knot it on four occasions, before four straight points, including back-to-back aces from
Adiamar Beaz's ace put Pitt-Johnstown on top, 13-11. After Paige Weeders' kill for Slippery Rock tied it at 13, the Mountain Cats regained control and outscored the Rock 12-5 the rest of the way. Pinske's block extended it to 20-15 and kills from Pinske and Susko, followed by a Rock ball handling error gave Pitt-Johnstown another 25-18 win.
The Mountain Cats opened up a 10-6 lead on kills by Alvarado and Beaz in the third set, then extended it to 18-11 on two more kills from Alvarado. Pitt-Johnstown never looked back and wrapped-up the three-set sweep with a 25-15 victory.
Along with Pinske and Alvarado, Pitt-Johnstown also got nine kills from
Brooke Pelloni, eight kills from Susko, and six kills and a pair of block solos from
Natalie Lippincott.
Beaz finished with match-highs of 44 set assists and four service aces, while adding 18 digs. DeRenzo collected a match-high 25 digs for Pitt-Johnstown.
Slippery Rock, which fell to 11-9 overall and 3-4 in the PSAC West, got eight kills apiece from Callie Chevalier and Erica Selfridge.
The Mountain Cats host a PSAC West match against California (PA) on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the sports Center, before visiting Seton Hill on Tuesday for a conference match.
