The Shippensburg University volleyball team defeated Pitt-Johnstown in a five-set thriller in its 2017 regular-season finale on Saturday afternoon, 17-25, 25-23, 25-21, 16-21 and 15-13 from the Sports Center.
Shippensburg (21-10, 13-5 PSAC) finished the regular season with back-to-back Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) wins to clinch the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament. SU will travel back to Pitt-Johnstown (23-8, 13-5) at 7 p.m. Tuesday for a PSAC quarterfinal matchup.
Junior
Morgan DeFloria led the Raiders offensively with 17 kills. Sophomore
Gabriella Johnson finished with 12 kills while hitting at a .278 clip – her second-best attack efficiency of the season.
Sophomore
Kendall Johnson was the third and final Raider to record double-digit kills with 13. She also contributed to six blocks. Sophomore
Samantha Webber had nine kills and a team-high seven blocks.
Freshman
Emily Hangen recorded 45 assists in the win. Hangen recorded a total of 92 assists over the final two matches of the regular season.
The Raiders used a collective effort defensively to down the Mountain Cats.
Gabriella Johnson led the way with 14 digs while DeFloria finished second on the team with 13. Hangen tallied 11 digs while sophomore libero
Megan Forstburg finished the match with 12 digs.
After dropping the first set 17-25, SU rallied to take the next two sets by a combined six points. Pitt-Johnstown responded with a win in the fourth set to force a decisive fifth set. SU trailed 9-7 in the fifth set but won eight of the final 12 points to clinch the victory.
Shippensburg will return to action Tuesday at 7 p.m. when it will travel to Pitt-Johnstown to take on the Mountain Cats in a PSAC Quarterfinal.
The third conference tiebreaker ultimately was used to determine seeds. Shippensburg and UPJ finished with a 13-5 conference record and with 35 points in the FIVB points system (3 points for win in 3-4 sets, 2 points for win in 5 sets, 1 point for loss in 5 sets), but Pitt-Johnstown won 43 sets in PSAC matches compared to 42 for Shippensburg.
