Caroline Knight recorded a match-high 17 kills as Pitt-Johnstown swept Edinboro, 25-17, 29-27, 25-20, in the regular season finale and Senior Day at the Sports Center on Saturday. The win lifted the Mountain Cats to 13-10 overall and 7-7 in the PSAC West.
The Mountain Cats, who will host a first round PSAC Tournament match against Seton Hill on Monday at 7 p.m., recognized seniors Caroline Knight, Brooke Pelloni, Dannika Susko, Journey Welling, and Ellie Zuro Cirino prior to the match. All five seniors saw action in the victory.
Knight hit .438 with just three errors on 32 attempts and added seven digs, two solo blocks and a service ace for 20 points. Pelloni chipped in eight kills while hitting .368, and Zuro Cirino also had eight kills along with a team-high two aces. Alanna Rivera contributed six kills, an ace and a block assist.
Arielis Valle Villegas dished out 18 assists and Abigail Berry added 15, while Avery Koontz led the back row with 17 digs. At the net, Susko tallied three blocks and hit .600 with three kills and no errors, and Welling also finished with three blocks (two solo, one assist). Riley Lockhart had six digs and Anna Ritter four.
As a team, Pitt-Johnstown hit .248 compared to Edinboro's .070 and held a 42-34 edge in kills.
Pitt-Johnstown opened set one with back-to-back Knight kills for a 2-0 lead, and Edinboro's Faith Schneider briefly put the Fighting Scots ahead, 7-6, with two straight service aces. Knight answered with kills to tie the set at 8-8 and give Pitt-Johnstown the lead again, and a Knight ace and a Susko block of Schneider capped a 3-0 run that made it 15-10. After Edinboro's Suncica Lekic got a kill to cut it to 17-14, Pitt-Johnstown ripped off four straight points on a Rivera kill, attack errors by Taylor Pucky and Reilly Parent (the latter on a Welling block) and a Knight kill for a 21-14 lead. A Susko block of DAira Whitner made it 24-16, and Pelloni's kill closed out the 25-17 win.
Edinboro jumped out to a 2-0 lead in set two and built a 10-7 advantage on a Tatiana Williams serving run. Pitt-Johnstown fought back to tie it at 12-12 on a Pelloni kill and stayed even until 15-15, when Zuro Cirino and the Mountain Cats took over. A Rivera and Welling block of Williams and a Zuro Cirino ace capped a four-point run that made it 19-15. Edinboro rallied to even the set at 22-22 and moved in front on Parent and Whitner kills, holding four set points between 24-23 and 27-26. Pitt-Johnstown answered every one of them, with a Pelloni kill tying it at 24-24, a Zuro Cirino kill at 25-25 and Knight kills at 26-26 and 27-27. Knight then blocked Pucky for a 28-27 lead, and Rivera's service ace sealed the 29-27 victory.
Pitt-Johnstown led most of set three, going up 9-4 on a Zuro Cirino ace and extending the lead to 16-10 on another Zuro Cirino kill. Edinboro answered with five straight points, getting kills from Williams and Pucky, to pull within 16-15 and later took an 18-17 lead on a Williams point. The Mountain Cats responded with a 6-0 run that included two Knight kills, a Rivera kill and an attack error from Pucky for a 23-18 lead. Edinboro cut it to 23-20, but a Rivera kill and a Pucky attack error ended the match at 25-20.
Edinboro, which finished the regular season 11-15 overall and 4-10 in the PSAC West, was led by Parent's 10 kills and 10 digs. Whitner added nine kills and Pucky had eight, while Christina Lockett led the Fighting Scots with four blocks and Lekic added three. Grace Petro dished out 14 assists, Anna Saldana had 13, and Schneider led the defense with 12 digs and two aces.
