Bradford, PA -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford hosted LaRoche on Saturday, taking on the Redhawks in a crucial AMCC matchup, while also celebrating four graduating players on Senior Day. The Panthers took a one-set lead after the third set, but could not close out the Redhawks and fell in a tightly contested 5th set.
Before the match, the Panthers took a few moments to recognize their four graduating Seniors, Ruby Smith, Ryley Pago, Brooklyn Bellavia, and Jenna Louser. All four seniors have spent 4 seasons with the Panthers and have been Academic All-Conference honorees in multiple seasons. Smith has played 96 matches for the Panthers, totaling 540 kills and 51 blocks as an outside hitter. Ryley Pago has split time as a right-side attacker and a middle hitter, playing 82 games with 152 kills and 104 blocks. Brooklyn Bellavia played in 49 matches with 45 kills and 16 blocks. Jenna Louser has played 98 matches as a middle hitter, tallying 558 kills and 200 blocks. She was a 3rd Team All-AMCC performer in 2024.
The Panthers lost an early lead in the opening set, falling 25-23 before battling back with a 25-16 win in the 2nd and a 25-17 victory in the third. They struggled in the 4th set, falling 25-11, setting up the thrilling finish. Pitt-Bradford fell behind early in the 5th, but battled back to earn multiple match points. Unfortunately, they could not finish off LaRoche and dropped the set 19-17.
Pitt-Bradford dropped the first two points of the match, but responded early and eventually built a 13-7 lead after a Pago block. Lillian Bentley had two early kills, while Brooke DeYoe added a pair of aces in the early going. LaRoche battled back and used a 7-point run to take a 14-13 lead, but the Panthers stopped the run and eventually forced a timeout with a 21-19 advantage. They were unable to close out the opener, however, losing 6 of the final 8 points to drop the set 25-23.
In set two, the Panthers sprinted out to an early lead, scoring 6 of the first 7 points in the set. LARoche quickly responded with four straight of their own, but Louser picked up two kills in a 8-2 rally that saw the Panthers build a 15-7 lead. They pushed their lead into double digits when Alycia Wilson tallied a kill and an ace on consecutive points, and Bentley recorded another kill to give the Panthers a 21-10 edge. They allowed LaRoche to trim the margin with a 4-point rally, but closed the match with consecutive kills by Bentley and a final side out from Louser to win 25-16.
Pitt-Bradford had another strong start in the third, jumping out to another 6-1 lead after back-to-back aces from their libero, Danielle Sasuga. The early rally ended with two straight Redhawk points, but the Panthers pushed their lead to 9 through a few LaRoche errors and kills by Alyssa Spang, Wilson, and Louser. The Redhawks put together a 7-1 rally to cut the lead to 3; however, the Panthers answered back with 5 in a row to push their lead back to 8. Pitt-Bradford saw out the set from there, using two late Louser kills to end the set 25-17.
The Panthers scored two early points in set four, but LaRoche built a big lead with a 16-3 run that included a stretch of 10 straight points. The Panthers put together three straight kills to get the deficit back into single digits, but never truly threatened the lead, ultimately losing the set 25-11 to force a deciding 5th set.
In the final set, the Panthers fell behind early, dropping 8 of the first 10 points of the set. They turned things around after the change, slowly chipping away at the lead until they trailed 10-8 following a Bentley kill. After two errors pushed the deficit back to 4, Pitt-Bradford rallied with Baylee Fitzsimmons at the service line. The junior started the rally with an ace, before Alycia Wilson tallied three straight kills to give Pitt-Bradford its first lead of the set. A LaRoche error gave the Panthers their first match point, but Pitt-Bradford could not close out the match, and LaRoche quickly tied the score at 14. The visitors would go ahead 16-15 after a Panther error, but a block by Bentley and Pago followed by a Smith kill put the Panthers on the brink of victory for the 2nd time. Unfortunately, they failed to finish the match, and LaRoche closed with three straight points to win the set 19-17 and the match 3-2.
Lillian Bentley led the Panthers with 19 kills, while also adding an ace and 9 digs. Jenna Louser had a huge Senior Day, tallying 13 kills with a .545 hitting percentage. Alycia Wilson added 14 kills and also tallied double-digit digs with 15. Abby King dished out 39 assists through the first three sets, while Marissa Bowman tallied 9 in the final set. Danielle Sasuga led the back line with 34 digs, and also chipped in with 4 assists and 3 aces.
The loss drops Pitt-Bradford to 16-9 on the season with a 2-4 mark in AMCC play. They will need a pair of victories in their last two games to secure a spot in the AMCC Tournament. They will begin their journey on Wednesday, with a road matchup at Alfred State. The game begins at 7:00 p.m. in Alfred State's Orvis Activities Center.
