The Pitt-Johnstown volleyball team lost to Shepherd University (W. Va.) 0-3 Sept. 27. Shepherd has an overall record of 14-0. This is their first conference home game.

Alex Hoekstra, the Shepherd head coach of women’s volleyball, said Pitt-Johnstown’s volleyball team is a good opponent for them.

“We respect them, and know what a good program they have, and they are tough to play,” Hoekstra said. 

“We had  close scores with each section. I think that we won because of our good offensive performance.

“Before we played this game, I watched a lot of previous Pitt-Johnstown volleyball videos,” Hoekstra said. 

“So I knew their habits; I set a good strategy for our team to score. 

“They (Pitt-Johnstown) lost many points from the server, and I think this is a big mistake for them. 

“I expect to meet them again in the future,” Hoekstra said.

Senior Imani Major, the Shepherd University libero, said she was proud of winning against Pitt-Johnstown volleyball.

“They are a good opponent, and we didn’t expect to win tonight,” Major said. “We lost to Pitt-Johnstown the past two years,” Major said.

On Sept. 28, Pitt-Johnstown lost to Shippensburg University 0-3. Shippensburg has overall a 10-3 record.

Leanne Piscotty, Shippensburg University’s women’s volleyball head coach, said the Pitt-Johnstown volleyball team is tough.

“We played well with each other’s teams during the past years, and I respect the head coach, and it’s a good volleyball program.

“We made it good today, and passes of the ball and blocked well,” Piscotty said. 

“In today’s game, we didn’t show up in the early stages, but finally felt  we were a little bit lucky.

“In the third set, we controlled the game, and our girls have chemistry with good communication and self behavior, and made less mistakes today,” Piscotty said.

Shippensburg senior Samantha Webber, a setter, said they watched video of the Pitt-Johnstown team to identify scoring opportunities.

“During the weekdays, we have three hours training every day, and we got paid off now,” Webber said.

Shippensburg junior Gianna Sigado, the outside hitter,  said Pitt-Johnstown is always good competition.

“We’re even teams. Good luck for Pitt-Johnstown in the rest of this season,” Sigado said.

Justin Haupt, Pitt-Johnstown head volleyball coach, said they played better against Shippensburg University and made fewer serving mistakes.

“We made fewer mistakes in the second game, and our servers didn’t have many mistakes, but we had some. If we didn’t lose some points in the first game, we can turn it over,” Haupt said.

“Those two teams (Shepherd and Shippensburg) are on fire, and it’s hard for us to stop them. 

“I think that I’m going to change my future training plans the rest of this season–go back to basics, like passing, blocking and serving to have better,” Haupt said.