Pitt-Bradford volleyball swept Penn State Altoona Sunday to capture the program's second-ever AMCC championship and the first since 2010.
It was the coronation to a magical season and capped a dominating run through the league's regular season and postseason tournament.
Constantly drawing parallels to the 2010 squad, these Panthers stand alone with a school-record 25 wins and have a chance to add to that total.
With the victory, the Panthers also secured the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament, which will be announced at 12:30 p.m. EST Monday. The athletic department will be hosting a selection viewing party for the team in the Bromeley Family Theater on campus.
Predicted seventh in the conference preseason poll, the Panthers finish 2016 with an unblemished record against AMCC opponents. Pitt-Bradford ran the table during the regular season, going a perfect 9-0.
The Blue and Gold played from behind in each of the first two sets, having to rally from early deficits of three and five. Tied at 17 in the opening stanza, two straight Altoona attack errors jumpstarted a run of six straight points by Pitt-Bradford. Mandy Finch finished off the set with one of her five kills.
Playing on the far end of the court in the second set, a side the Panthers have historically struggled on, Altoona raced out to a 5-0 lead. The Panthers began chipping away and eventually drew even at 13-13. Altoona would briefly regain the advantage only to see Pitt-Bradford pull ahead with four straight points.
The Lions responded, rallying to erase a 20-16 hole, and went ahead 25-24 after a Panther attack error and Josie Stovall kill. Pitt-Bradford regrouped, settled by Rose Thacker's kill on the ensuing play, and two plays later, Kirsten Platz won the set with a kill.
In the third set, senior Christina Rauh's serving helped stake Pitt-Bradford to a commanding 7-0 lead. Altoona trimmed the margin to 8-4 but would get no closer as the Panthers hit a blistering .394 for the frame. The match ended on Platz' team-leading 12th kill. The bench emptied onto the floor and the student section joined the Panthers shortly after in a wild celebration.
Altoona entered the match as one of the top blocking units in the league yet the Panthers matched the Lions with seven total blocks. Pitt-Bradford hit .233 as a team while limiting the visitors to a .115 hitting clip.
Thacker finished with seven kills, and Erin Fagan and Alexis Dhayer had six apiece. Rauh filled the stat sheet, recording 33 assists, 10 digs and three aces. Finch added a team-high 13 digs, and Platz and Dhayer each had four blocks apiece.
Platz and Rauh were honored on the AMCC postseason all-tournament team, which was announced during the trophy presentation.
For Tom Roof, it is his second AMCC championship as part of the Pitt-Bradford volleyball program but first as head coach.
"Incredible feeling…I am so happy for the girls," Roof, who is in his second season, claimed. "We talked about it from our very first practice, to get to this match, to this point, and today we wanted to finish what we started.
After failing to make the tournament last year, the girls wanted a different ending this season and they got it. So incredibly proud of them"
The win also snaps a recent stretch of futility for Pitt-Bradford athletics in AMCC championship games. Since 2010, the Panthers have had runner-up finishes in volleyball (2011 and 2013), softball (2013), women's soccer (2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015) and women's basketball (2016). Consider the monkey officially off Pitt-Bradford's back. Overall, it is the school's 16th AMCC championship.
Very soon, a new gold and blue banner will hang in the KOA Arena, emblazoned with NCAA tournament participant, a constant reminder of a team that accomplished so much when so little was expected outside of those in Bradford.
