University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown outside hitter Ellie Zuro Cirino, left, defends her side of the court at Gannon University, during the opening round of the NCAA Atlantic Regional tournament. Courtesy photo

ERIE, Pa. — Fifth-seeded Shepherd University had its volleyball season end last Thursday, when it was defeated by fourth-seeded University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in the opening round of the NCAA Atlantic Regional tournament that was hosted by top-seed Gannon University.

The Rams came into the tournament with three consecutive losses and an overall record of 19-10 and could never find any answers for the kills of Ellie Zuro Cirino, who had 17 kills in the Mountain Cat win. Pitt-Johnstown improved to 18-11 with the tournament victory and then went on to lose to Gannon the next night in the semifinals.

The game scores in Pitt-Johnstown’s 3-0 win were 25-18, 25-23 and 25-21.

Shepherd finished the season with a 19-11 overall record after dropping season-ending verdicts to Kutztown East Stroudsburg, Indiana (Pa.) and the Mountain Cats.

Zuro Cirino was a factor from the beginning of the first game, where UPJ grabbed a 3-0 lead to get it started. Midway through the opening game the lead had grown to 14-7 and later to 23-18 before Zuro Cirino completed her early-match imprint with another kill.

Shepherd actually had a scoring spurt of its own at the outset of the second game — getting a 3-0 lead.

With the score at 11-11, the Rams went ahead. 19-16, but then a 7-2 sprint by the Mountain Cats had them in front, 23-21.

Zuro Cirino had three kills at the beginning of the third game as UPJ took a 6-3 lead.

Her back-to-back kills had the Mountain Cats within sight of a tournament victory when they led 16-9.

Shepherd’s offensive statistics were paced by the eight kills of both Amya Davis and Sophia Ryan.

Gannon had beaten Fayetteville State in the opening round before eliminating Pitt-Johnstown in the semifinals.

In the finals, the Golden Knights posted a 3-0 win over Indiana (Pa.) to qualify for the national tournament’s Elite Eight, where it took a 27-7 overall record into play.