EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. — The Pitt-Johnstown women's volleyball team bowed out of the PSAC Tournament after falling to West No. 1 seed Gannon in a 3-1 loss (28-26, 21-25, 16-25, 17-25) in the semifinals on Friday night at Koehler Fieldhouse.

The Mountain Cats will now await the NCAA Selection Show set for 7:30 p.m. Monday to see if their body of work during a 17-11 (7-7 PSAC) campaign was enough for a spot in the NCAA Regionals. The top eight teams in the Atlantic Region earn a bid.

Coming off a 22-kill performance in a quarterfinal win over Shippensburg, Ellie Zuro Cirino paced West No. 3 seed Pitt-Johnstown with a match-high 21 kills on a .262 hitting percentage. Caroline Knight provided nine kills and 12 digs and a match-high four aces.

Senior outside hitter Natalie Lippincott recorded nine kills and 13 digs. Dannika Susko contributed six kills and a match-high four blocks.

Abby Berry dished out 40 assists and added seven digs, and Avery Koontz supplied a match-high 24 digs.

Pitt-Johnstown pressed all of the right buttons late in a hard-fought marathon of a first set that featured six lead changes. Trailing 24-23, senior Mallory Pinske recorded a kill and Caroline Knight followed with an ace to set up a set-point.

The Golden Knights answered with two straight points, but a kill from Zuro and two Gannon attack errors lifted the Mountain Cats to a 1-0 lead.

They were down 6-3 to begin the second set before Zuro smacked two kills and Knight secured an ace during a 5-0 run to go up 8-6. Neither team took more than a three-point advantage until Gannon scored four straight to put Pitt-Johnstown in a 21-15 hole that it could not overcome. 

The Mountain Cats faced an 11-2 deficit in the early going of the third set. They responded by scoring nine of the next 11 points, including a 6-0 run that saw Zuro hammer home three kills to cut it to 13-11. It was all the closer Pitt-Johnstown would get to tying it before going down 2-1.

After slipping into a 6-1 hole to start the fourth set, the Mountain Cats never led despite trimming that deficit to one on two separate occasions. Zuro racked up four kills and Lippincott had three in the final set.

Sydney Wake totaled a team-high 19 kills to help Gannon improve to 24-6. The Golden Knights will face East No. 1 seed East Stroudsburg in the PSAC Championship at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22.