Pittsburgh, Pa. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford women's volleyball team was back on the road on Saturday as they traveled to Pittsburgh to take on Carlow. The Panthers got out to a slow start and fell to the Celtics 3 sets to 0.
The Panthers dropped the opening set 16-25 and then fell into a bigger hole after dropping the second set 8-25. They stuck around longer in the third set, but ultimately fell 18-25 bringing the match to a close.
Pitt-Bradford jumped ahead early as they took a 5-2 lead to begin the match. Baylee Fitzsimmons started the set with an ace and two kills from Taylor King and a third from Morgan Frishkorn put the Panthers ahead early. A service error ended the rally and turned momentum over to the hosts, who quickly erased the lead, and then scored 6 in a row to go ahead 6-11. Later in the set, Pitt-Bradford cut the lead down to three, but Carlow answered and quickly scored 4 straight to go up 12-19. They closed the set on a 10-4 run.
The second set saw the Panthers go ahead at the start with kills by Ruby Smith and Summer Anderson. Carlow quickly took the momentum back and then scored 16 of the following 20 points, using two six-point rallies to go ahead 5-17. They also scored 5 of the final 6 points of the set to take a commanding 2-0 lead.
Carlow took another early lead in the third set, but the Panthers responded and slowly chipped away at the deficit until they got back to being behind by a point. They were never able to completely erase the Carlow lead, however, as the Celtics limited the Panthers to rallies of no more than two points. With Pitt-Bradford down 9-10, Carlow quickly scored four straight to break open the set. The Panthers challenged late, as they cut the lead to three at 15-18 with kills by Emma King and Jenna Louser and an ace from Dylan Amic, but the Celtics were able to close out the match again, outscoring the Panthers 7-3 down the stretch.
Jenna Louser and Taylor King paced the Panthers with 4 kills each. Jenna Louser did not commit a hitting error and finished the match with a .400 hit percentage. She also added 3 total blocks. Alyssa Radtke finished the match with 12 assists, while Abby King added 5. Kayla Maslowski tallied 10 digs in the loss.
Pitt-Bradford falls to 4-19 overall with a 1-6 record in AMCC play. They will be back in action on Tuesday, October 31st, when they take on Alfred State on the road.
