ERIE, Pa. – The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford women's volleyball team knocked off No. 2 seeded Mount Aloysius in straight sets Saturday in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Semifinals at Penn State-Behrend.
With the win, No. 3 Pitt-Bradford will take on the top-seeded Penn State-Behrend Sunday in the AMCC Championship match.
"We played a fabulous game today," Head Coach Tom Roof said. "It was the best we played all year and it couldn't have come at a better time, against one of the best teams in the conference. The reason we played so well today was we had a balanced attack. Alexandra Segura playing her best game of the season and Katie Treat gave us some offense, pairing that with what we got from Riley Anderson on the outside today. Defensively, we played really scrappy and we kept a lot of balls alive.
"The girls played with a lot of heart today and wanted to get to tomorrow's game," Roof continued. "But, we know we have tough business to take care of, so hopefully we can match today's performance against Behrend tomorrow."
Anderson put together one of her best performances of the season, recording a game-best 14 kills and 21 digs.
Katie Treat was second on the team with 12 kills and assisted three blocks, and Segura knocked a career-high eight kills and assisted four blocks.
Payton Orzech had 39 assists and 10 digs.
Defensively, Laura Hildebrand had 14 digs for Pitt-Bradford.
For the day, Pitt-Bradford swung at a .211 hitting percentage, knocking 46 kills on 142 attempts while making 16 errors.
The Panthers rode a .264 hitting effort in the opening set to pull off a 25-22 win.
Pitt-Bradford capitalized on seven Mountie hitting errors and made just three of their own to come out on top.
Anderson paced the Panthers with six kills and 11 digs in the first set.
Set two was much of the same, as the Panthers controlled a hefty lead throughout, highlighted by a run that resulted in a 16-9 advantage.
Eventually, the Panthers used nine Mountie total attack errors to take set two, 25-21.
Mount Aloysius would not go down easy in the third set, though, and the Panthers battled back from being down 19-18 and rallied for the 25-22 victory to secure the sweep.
Pitt-Bradford improves to 19-12 overall this season and enters the championship match having won 15-straight sets.
Saturday's semifinal win avenges a four-set Mount Aloysius victory in the two teams' prior meeting this season on Sept. 22 at the KOA Arena. The Mounties went onto record an 8-1 record in conference play, only falling to the eventual top-seeded Penn State-Behrend.
Earlier this season, Pitt-Bradford had Penn State-Behrend at match point in the fourth set, but the Lions battled back and won in five sets at the KOA Arena on Oct. 16.
Penn State-Behrend won the AMCC Championship last season and knocked off Pitt-Bradford in the semifinals, but Pitt-Bradford will look for its third conference title in three years Sunday.
Sunday's AMCC Championship match is set for a 1 p.m. start.
