Pitt-Johnstown faced adversity early on after an opening set defeat, but shrugged it off in a hurry and prevailed in the next three sets for a 3-1 victory (22-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-19) over Shippensburg in a PSAC crossover matchup on Tuesday night.
After a season-high 19 kills in a win over Edinboro last Saturday, Lualis Alvarado one-upped herself by hammering out a career-high 25 kills to help the Mountain Cats improve to 16-7 overall (6-4 PSAC). The junior added eight digs and two solo blocks.
There was also a balanced attack behind her as Mallory Pinske, Brooke Pelloni and Katelyn Courtney each tallied eight kills apiece. Natalie Lippincott chipped in seven kills. Pinske and Courtney each had two blocks.
Neither team created much separation in a second set that was tied on 14 different occasions. The Mountain Cats found themselves down 21-19 before storming back to tie it via a kill from Alvarado and an attack error.
Out of a timeout, Alvarado and Lippincott smacked back-to-back kills before Adiamar Beaz ended it at the service line with a pair of aces to knot the match at 1-all.
Beaz passed out a match-high 43 assists, while providing 15 digs and racking up a season-high six service aces. The junior from Puerto, Rico firmly sits alone atop the PSAC with 53 service aces on the season. Gabi DeRenzo registered a match-high 32 digs, giving her a PSAC-leading 487 on the year. DeRenzo is the only player in the conference averaging more than six digs per set this season. Freshman Jessica Krug added 12 digs.
The Mountain Cats fought back from a 5-1 deficit and eventually took a 10-9 lead in the third set on Liredys Casiano's service ace. Shippensburg went up 14-12 on a kill, but Pitt-Johnstown erased that with a 7-0 rally capped off by back-to-back kills from Lippincott and Alvarado to go up 19-14 and never trail in the set again.
It would get as close as 23-22, but an attack error that made it a set point was followed by Alvarado's set-clinching kill that gave Pitt-Johnstown a 2-1 advantage.
The fourth set was knotted at 11-all before a 5-1 spurt headlined by two kill from Pelloni put the Mountain Cats up 16-12. They never trailed from that point despite Shippensburg clawing within one at 20-19. Alvarado tallied two kills in the match-ending 5-0 run that concluded with a perfectly placed service ace from Beaz.
Gracen Nutt had a team-high 13 kills for the Raiders, who dropped to 16-8 overall (7-1 PSAC).
The Mountain Cats will return to PSAC West action on Friday when they entertain Clarion at 6 p.m.
