Pitt Defeats Lehigh in Straight Sets

Saturday, September 17

Pittsburgh, Pa.

10:00 AM

Pitt

8-3

Lehigh

4-8

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Lehigh	21	13	16	0
Pitt	25	25	25	3

Pitt Defeats Lehigh in Straight Sets

9/17/2016 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

Sept. 17, 2016

PITTSBURGH - The University of Pittsburgh volleyball team defeated Lehigh in straight sets Saturday morning in its second match of the Panther Challenge at the Fitzgerald Field House.

The Panthers [8-3] put up three consecutive wins against the Mountain Hawks [4-8] 25-21, 25-13 and 25-16.

Offensively, Pitt out hit Lehigh recording 42 kills and a .348 hitting percentage while the Mountain Hawks were only able to convert 26 kills and put together a .108 average.

The Panthers' attack was led by Layne Van Buskirk and redshirt freshman Stephanie Williams. The freshman tallied 12 kills on 16 attempts with just a single error to hit .688, while Williams also racked up 12 kills and hit .250.

Sophomore Kamalani Akeo set up the hitters with 30 assists, while the Panthers had another impressive serving day tallying 10 total. Freshman Nika Markovic led Pitt with three.

Redshirt sophomore Angela Seman led the Panthers' back row defense with 12 kills, while Van Buskirk put up three block assists to pace Pitt's showing at the net.

Set One: Pitt 25, Lehigh 21
Pitt's offense came out dominating, scoring seven of its first nine points on kills. The Panthers got out to a 9-5 lead, which prompted Lehigh to take its first timeout.
The home team added three consecutive following the break to extend Pitt's lead to 12-5, but the Panthers didn't stop there as continued success led them to a seven point lead late in the set.
The Mountain Hawks struggled to find a rhythm, opposite of Pitt, asking for a second timeout following a triple block by Bell, redshirt senior Jenna Potts and sophomore Ellie Watkins that gave Pitt a 22-15 lead.
The Panthers found set point just minutes later, 24-18, but had to work for the win as Lehigh fought off three straight points before a Kelsey O'Neill kill ended it.

Set Two: Pitt 25, Lehigh 13
With Pitt leading 2-1 at the start of the second set, an interesting string of events occurred as the Panthers were awarded a yellow card and a red card within three points of each other following delay of game calls. Upon the second card, the Panthers lost a
point and the ball resulting in Lehigh taking a 4-3 lead
With the Mountain Hawks back in the game, the two teams exchanged points until two aces by sophomore Hanna Markewycz and kills from Williams and O'Neill gave Pitt a 16-11 lead.
The Panthers outscored Lehigh 9-2 to end the set and take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Set Three: Pitt 25, Lehigh 16
In their final outing, Pitt and the Mountain Hawks fought back and forth in a tight race early on. The Panthers were able to separate themselves by three points but it didn't last long as Lehigh came back to tie the set 13-13.
Pitt found a groove midway through the set and scored five points to the Mountain Hawks one to pull ahead 18-14.
Lehigh called a timeout to try and stop the Panthers but Pitt returned to the couth to score six straight to finish off the Mountain Hawks.

Up Next
Pitt will conclude the Panther Challenge this Saturday evening as they take on Robert Morris at 7 p.m.

#H2P | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook