The Pitt-Johnstown volleyball team closed out the D'Youville Tournament with a dominant performance Saturday, sweeping the host Saints 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-17) at the Saints Center Gym. The Mountain Cats improved to 2-2 on the season with the road victory.
Caroline Knight paced the Mountain Cats offensively, finishing with 12 kills, four aces and three block assists in the win. Ellie Zuro Cirino added 10 kills on a blistering .348 hitting percentage, while Kiara Harmon chipped in seven kills and a team-high five block assists.
Setting the table for Pitt-Johnstown's attack was Arielis Valle Villegas, who tallied 17 assists, 10 digs and three aces. Abby Berry contributed 14 assists and three aces of her own, and Avery Koontz led all players with 13 digs to anchor the back row.
Pitt-Johnstown out-hit D'Youville across the board, finishing with a .194 attack percentage compared to the Saints' .048. The Mountain Cats also held sizable advantages in kills (40-21), assists (38-20) and aces (12-1), while D'Youville held a narrow edge in digs, 38-42.
The Mountain Cats never trailed for long in the opener, using a late service run from Knight and a string of D'Youville errors to pull away from an 18-16 lead to a 25-19 finish.
Set two saw Pitt-Johnstown build an early cushion before Knight closed the set with three straight aces, sealing a 25-17 win.
The third set followed a similar script, as the Mountain Cats used a 6-0 run keyed by aces from Valle Villegas and kills from Knight and Zuro Cirino to build a comfortable lead en route to the 25-17, match-clinching finish.
D'Youville was led by Madeline O'Brien, who recorded nine kills and seven digs, while Ashley Ballou contributed four kills, nine assists and eight digs in the loss. The Saints fell to 0-4 on the season.
Pitt-Johnstown will next travel to the Frostburg State (Md.) University Tournament, opening play Sept. 4 at Frostburg State before facing Shippensburg University and Walsh (Ohio) University on Sept. 5.
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