Bradford, Pa. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford volleyball team hosted its annual tri-match on Saturday afternoon, as they hosted Keuka and Penn College. The Panthers fell to Keuka 3-1 but were able to pick up a 5-set victory over Penn College to close the day.
Match 1 - Pitt-Bradford 1 - Keuka 3
The Panthers day began with a tough 3-1 loss to Keuka. The Panthers took an early lead, winning set one 25-21, but lost a tight second set 23-25 to even the match. The Panthers saw Keuka take the lead, as they dominated set 3 12-25, and then closed the match with an 18-25 set four win.
Pitt-Bradford started the match red hot, scoring the first 5 points. After the visitors slowed them down and cut the lead to just one, the Panthers slowly built it back up, eventually opening a 9-point advantage at 22-13 following a service ace from Summer Anderson. Keuka rallied, scoring 8 of 9 points to trim the lead to just two before a pair of errors saw the Panthers win the set.
The second set saw Keuka jump out to an early 4-1 lead, but the Panthers battled back, eventually scoring 7 of 8 points to take an 11-8 lead. Pitt-Bradford maintained the advantage until the Wolves made a run of their own, tying up the set at 17-17. The teams exchanged side-outs until Keuka scored three in a row to put the Panthers on set point at 22-24. Jenna Louser put down a kill to cut the lead to one, but the Wolves responded with one of their own to win the set.
Pitt-Bradford had an even slower start in the third set, as Keuka scored 12 of the first 13 points to build an insurmountable lead. The closest the Panthers would get to the Wolves was 7 points after a four-point service run from Dylan Amic saw them trim the deficit to 16-7, but Keuka once again responded, scoring 5 in a row to break open the set further.
The Panthers fell behind one last time in the fourth set, allowing the Wolves to take an early 4-1 lead, but they battled back, eventually taking a lead of their own at 9-8 after a double block from Ryley Pago and Emma King. Keuka immediately went back in front with two straight aces and never relinquished the lead. They built their lead to 6 points at 21-15 before the Panthers made one final push. Pitt-Bradford scored three straight on an Alyssa Radtke kill, an error, and an ace from Amic, but Keuka scored four straight after the ace to complete the victory.
Jenna Louser led the Panthers with 7 kills in the game. Emma King and Marissa Bowman each added 5 more. Chloe Bellis racked up 19 assists in the match. She also had 12 digs, 3 kills, an ace, and a half block in the match. Kayla Maslowski led the defensive effort with 21 digs. Dylan Amic had 5 aces, while Bowman had 3.
Match 2 - Pitt-Bradford 3 - Penn College 2
After falling to Keuka, the Panthers closed the event on a good note, earning a 5-set victory over Penn College. The Panthers took a lead twice, as they won the opening set 25-17 and the third 25-23, but fell in the even sets 19-25 and 22-25. They were able to come through in the deciding fifth set, winning 15-8 to take the match.
The Panthers took the first two points of the match on a kill by Amic and a block by Anderson but saw the Wildcats eventually take a 7-5 lead. After getting the service back on an error, Amic served the Panthers to 4 straight points to put the Panthers back in front. She had three aces in the run and Louser added a kill. They kept building momentum throughout the set, slowly building a 23-14 lead. Penn College was able to score three points late but kills by Taylor King and Chloe Bellis put the set away with kills.
Pitt-Bradford was able to match the Wildcats early in the second set, but Penn went on a long scoring run, turning a 6-6 tie into a 17-8 lead. 4 Wildcat errors and a Louser kill saw the Panthers cut the deficit to 4 points, but could not get any closer to the Wildcats, as they were able to side-out to tie the match at 1 set apiece.
The Panthers retook the lead with a strong victory in set 3. Once again they scored the first two points of the set and went on to build a 10-4 advantage. They maintained the lead through the middle of the set before going on an 11-3 run to break open a double-digit lead at 22-10. The visitors scored three late but Emma King was able to put the set away with a kill at 25-13.
Penn was able to take an early lead in the fourth set but the Panthers were able to chip away at the early deficit and tie the set at 12 after a Bridget Kasting kill. With the set tied at 14, the Wildcats went on a run, quickly scoring 8 of 10 points to open up a 6-point edge. After they added two more to make the score 24-17, the Panthers made a final run, scoring 5 straight to trim the lead to two points at 22-24. King and Kasting each had kills in the rally, while Anderson added two more. They were not able to tie the set however as a Penn kill won the 4th at 25-22.
The deciding 5th set saw the teams share the first four points before the Panthers scored 4 straight to open up a lead. They traded 4 side-outs before the Panthers rallied for four more in a row to edge closer to victory. Penn scored three points late, but Bowman and Anderson put down a pair of final kills to win the match.
Summer Anderson had a monster game in the middle for the Panthers. She led the team with 8 kills while hitting .350. She also had 3 aces and 5.5 blocks, including 4 solo efforts. She totaled 16.5 points in the match. Taylor King and Jenna Louser each added 5 kills. Chloe Bellis led the Panthers with 13 assists, while Alyssa Radtke was right behind her with 12. Kayla Maslowski collected 30 digs to lead the defense, while Baylee Fitzsimmons reached double-figures with 11. Dylan Amic added 4 more aces, bringing her total to 9 for the day.
After the trimatch, the Panthers record is now 2-11. They will have a week off before returning to action next Saturday. They will travel to Chambersburg, Pa. where they will play in a trimatch hosted by Wilson. They will take on Wilkes in the first game at 1:00 p.m., before playing the hosts at 3:00.
