Ellie Zuro Cirino set a career high with 23 kills, and Caroline Knight added 15 as the Pitt-Johnstown volleyball team beat PSAC West rival Slippery Rock, 3-1 (22-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-23), Friday night at Morrow Field House in Slippery Rock. The Mountain Cats improved to 11-7 overall and 5-4 in the PSAC, while the Rock fell to 6-15 and 0-9 in conference play.
Zuro Cirino also finished with four service aces, eight digs and two blocks, while Knight added 14 digs and three blocks. Arielis Valle Villegas dished out a match-high 33 assists to go with four aces and 12 digs, and Abigail Berry added 19 assists. Kiara Harmon led all players with seven blocks and added seven kills, Alanna Rivera had eight kills, and Avery Koontz led the Mountain Cats with 16 digs.
Pitt-Johnstown out-hit the Rock .223 to .139 and held advantages in kills (61-43), aces (8-4), assists (58-40) and digs (73-59).
Slippery Rock took the opening set, 25-22, in a back-and-forth battle that saw both teams hit nearly identically (.205 for Pitt-Johnstown, .204 for the Rock). Pitt-Johnstown opened a 2-0 lead before the Rock scored five of six points to go up 10-6. The Mountain Cats answered with four straight points, capped by a Harmon kill and a Rivera block that forced an attack error, to tie it at 10-10. The score stayed tight until Slippery Rock reeled off five straight points to take a 24-19 lead. Pitt-Johnstown cut it to 22-24 on three straight points before the Rock closed it out.
Pitt-Johnstown evened the match with a 25-15 win in the second set, holding Slippery Rock to a negative hitting percentage (-.094). The Mountain Cats opened on a 5-0 run, with Valle Villegas serving two aces, and pushed the lead to 9-3 after a Zuro Cirino service ace. After the Rock cut it to 19-14, Pitt-Johnstown scored the final five points of the run, including another Zuro Cirino ace and kills from Zuro Cirino and Harmon, to reach 24-14 before closing out the set.
The Mountain Cats carried that momentum into the third set, hitting .286 in a 25-19 win. Pitt-Johnstown trailed only briefly early, then scored seven of eight points to turn a 7-5 game into a 14-6 lead, with Zuro Cirino and Harmon supplying kills. Slippery Rock chipped away and got within 18-14, but Pitt-Johnstown answered with three straight points to go up 22-15 and held on from there.
The fourth set was the tightest of the night. Slippery Rock jumped out to a 6-2 lead, but Pitt-Johnstown rallied to tie it at 10-10 and then scored five straight points, with Rivera and Zuro Cirino delivering kills and a Zuro Cirino ace, to lead 16-11. The Rock climbed back to tie it at 19-19, but Zuro Cirino turned in three consecutive kills to put the Mountain Cats ahead 22-19. After Slippery Rock pulled within 24-23, Zuro Cirino put down her career-best 23rd kill ending the match on a set from Valle Villegas.
Ellie Friedrichs and Ali Haynes each led Slippery Rock with 10 kills, and Hayden Deming added eight. Emily Loeffler dished out 19 assists and Paityn Krause had 16 assists to go with 11 digs. Maggie Means paced the Rock defensively with 14 digs, while Victoria Nalbach and Deming each finished with five blocks.
Pitt-Johnstown returns to action at Saturday with a PSAC match at Clarion at 1 p.m., then travels to Indiana (Pa.) for a 6 p.m. conference match next Friday.
