Box Score Millersville, Pa. - The Millersville women's volleyball team is playing its best volleyball of the season at just the right time. Saturday afternoon, Millersville posted a hitting percentage of .306 to take down the No. 2 team in the PSAC East, Pitt-Johnstown, in four sets.
The Marauders (12-12, 7-8 PSAC) dropped the Mountain Cats (17-8, 9-6 PSAC) with set scores of 13-25, 25-18, 25-14, 25-18. Millersville leads the all-time series with the PSAC newcomer, 3-1 and has won seven of its last nine matches.
Pitt-Johnstown opened the first set on a 7-3 run and forced a timeout from the Marauder head coach Brian Smith. From that point on, though, Millersville was unable to get within three of the Mountain Cats who scored 11 of the final 15 to take the lopsided first set, 25-13. The visitors posted a blistering hitting percentage of .474 with 10 kills and one error.
Neither team scored more than two points in a row to open the second set until the score was 11-9 in favor of Pitt-Johnstown. The Mountain Cats didn't enjoy a lead the rest of the match. The Marauders scored eight of the next 11 points to go up on their guests, 17-14. The run was fueled by three kills from Katie Lesinski and a pair from Rebecca Roman. Millersville's advantage never shrunk below two and was as big as seven as it won the set 25-18. The home team posted a sizzling hitting percentage of .500 in the set with 12 kills and two errors on 20 total attacks.
The Marauders opened the third set on fire and took a 10-3 lead over the Mountain Cats. Lesinski recorded four kills in the stretch including two service aces. Mary Paul and Kayla Wallace each chipped in two kills as well. Millersville's smallest lead was five at 10-5 and the Marauders sailed to an easy set victory, 25-14.
The hosts scored five of the first seven points in the fourth set thanks in part to three errors from Pitt-Johnstown. After a pair of ties, the second one coming at 7-7, Millersville used a 10-2 run to take a 17-9 lead and complete control of the set. Paul sent home two service aces and Roman registered two kills to support the run. The Marauders smallest lead was five as they went on to take the set 25-18 and the match three sets to one.
Lesinski accumulated 17 kills while Roman and Paul tallied 11 and 10, respectively. Roman posted a hitting percentage of .421 to only three errors and Paul hit .692 for the match with just one error. Jessica Franz aided the offense with 21 assists and Erika Smith turned in 20 helpers. Brooklyn Smith dug out 13 attacks and Paul led the defense above the net with four blocks.
Millersville travels to West Chester to battle the Golden Rams Friday beginning at 7 p.m.
