Bradford, Pa. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford women's volleyball erased a 2-set deficit to force a fifth set against Alfred State on Tuesday night but fell to the first-place Pioneers 3-2.
The Panthers struggled to find their footing early as they committed 20 hitting errors on the way to a 25-19 loss in set one and 25-17 in set two. The Panthers extended the game with a 19-25 win in the third set and used a miraculous 10-point rally to win set 4 24-26. Unfortunately, they were unable to maintain momentum in the 5th set, falling 15-11.
Pitt-Bradford remained close to the Pioneers to begin the game as the teams split 12 points. After an Olivia Reese kill tied the match at 6, the visitors scored 6 of the next 7 points to open up a 12-7 lead. They pushed their lead to 10 at 22-12 before the Panthers rallied to score 5 straight. After getting the serve back on an error, a Reese kill and service ace bookended a pair of Ruby Smith Kills to cut the lead to 6. Back-to-back service errors and another Smith Kill put the Panthers down 24-19, but a final service error ended the set.
Set two began in a similar fashion as its predecessor as both teams used short scoring runs to stay within 3 points. A Tabitha Walker kill put the Panthers down 10-11, but the Pioneers quickly extended their lead to 5 to force a Pitt-Bradford timeout. Alfred State continued to build their lead for the remainder of the set, answering every Panther side out with two or three points in a row of their own. they kept their lead over 7 points for the remainder of the set to win 25-17.
The Panthers came out firing in set three, as Tabitha Walker started the set with a pair of service aces. The Panthers continually built their lead early on, pushing their advantage to 7 points after a pair of Stephanie Carson aces and a kill from Jenna Louser forced an Alfred State timeout. From that point they were able to maintain their lead, keeping the Pioneers to short runs. Smith had 3 late kills to help put the set away, including the winning point.
After extending the match into a fourth set, the Panthers lost momentum right away, as they quickly fell behind 5-0. Pitt-Bradford was able to cut the lead to 2 on a Reese kill, but Alfred State responded and quickly pushed their lead to seven points at 6-13. The lead eventually reached 10 points at 12-22 before the Panthers started a miraculous comeback. A Pioneer service error turned the ball over to Kayla Maslowski who served the Panthers to 3 straight points, including an Alfred State error and two Reese kills. The rally ended on an error and the Pioneers used another error to put the Panthers on match point. Kaitlyn Sexton put down a kill to return the serve to the Panthers and Chloe Bellis. Bellis stepped up and served the Panthers to 10 straight points to win the set for Pitt-Bradford. Alfred State called its first timeout after an error and kills from Reese and Sexton cut their advantage to 20-24. After the timeout, Bellis recorded two service aces to force a second timeout. The Panthers tied the score at 24 with back-to-back kills and went to set point after a Pioneer error. Fittingly, Reese and Sexton had a final double block to pick up the final point and win the set 26-24.
Following the emotional 4th set comeback, the Panthers fell behind 5-1 in the tiebreaker. They were able to break the rally and score four in a row to tie things up at 5, but the Pioneers repeated their feat to quickly restore their 5-point advantage. Both teams pushed the set forward with 7 straight sideouts to put the Pioneers ahead 14-9. The Panthers seemed to be repeating their 4th set comeback as they picked up two in a row on a Smith kill and a double block for Louser and Smith, but saw their second rally end as Alfred State put down a final kill to win the set 15-11 and take the match.
Olivia Reese led the Panther attack with 21 kills. She also added 2 assists, an ace, 3 half-blocks, and 10 digs. Ruby Smith finished with 11 kills. Tabitha Walker had another strong performance at setter, dishing out 36 assists. She also reached double figures in digs, finishing with 12. Kayla Maslowski led the defensive with 26 digs. Stephanie Carson added 18 and Chloe Bellis had 11. Kaitlyn Sexton put down 7 kills and was in on 4 blocks.
The Panthers fall to 8-14 on the season and 2-2 in AMCC play. They will be back in action on Saturday as they will host Penn-State Altoona on Senior Day. The game is scheduled to begin at 1:00 with the Senior Day ceremony taking place approximately 20 minutes before teh action.
