JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — The Pitt-Johnstown women's volleyball team bowed out of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Tournament with a 3-1 loss to Seton Hill (24-26, 25-22, 21-25, 22-25) in the first round Monday night at the Sports Center.
With the Mountain Cats sitting just outside the Atlantic Region's top eight, head coach Justin Haupt's squad will close out the 2026 campaign with a 13-11 overall record and a 7-7 mark in PSAC play.
Senior Caroline Knight guided No. 4 seed Pitt-Johnstown with team-highs of 14 kills and 13 digs. Senior Ellie Zuro Cirino provided 11 kills and six digs. Junior Kiara Harmon recorded a team-high six blocks and was the most efficient attacker, racking up 10 kills on a .438 hitting percentage.
Freshman Arielis Valle Villegas dished out a team-high 23 assists, while junior Abigail Berry added 18. Sophomore Avery Koontz contributed 12 digs.
The Mountain Cats bounced back from an early 6-1 deficit in the opening set by rattling off four straight points to tie it at 9-all.
Neither team led by more than three until Zuro Cirino capped a 4-0 run with a kill to give Pitt-Johnstown a 23-19 lead. The match turned, however, when Seton Hill scored seven of the next eight points to take a 1-0 lead.
Pitt-Johnstown put together a valiant response by compiling three kills during a 5-0 run to begin the second frame. Trailing 16-13, the Mountain Cats secured seven of the next eight points to grab a 20-17 advantage. A pair of Seton Hill attack errors set up Zuro Cirino, who detonated on a ball to seal the set and tie the match at 1-all.
No. 5 seed Seton Hill led throughout the third set after going up 3-0 to start. To its credit, Pitt-Johnstown never went away, and even cut the deficit to 22-20 down the stretch following a well-placed ace from Abigail Berry. The Griffins answered with two straight kills and won the set on a service error.
Staring down a 14-8 deficit, the Mountain Cats rebounded with a critical 9-2 rally that gave them a brief 17-16 lead. But Pitt-Johnstown could not recover after six straight points from Seton Hill put them in a 22-17 hole. A late 3-0 run made it 24-22, but another service error brought the set and the match to a close.
Seton Hill will visit East No. 1 seed Shepherd at 6 p.m. on Wednesday in a quarterfinals matchup.
Pitt-Johnstown, meanwhile, will say farewell to five seniors, including Knight, Zuro Cirino, Brooke Pelloni, Dannika Susko and Journey Welling.
