Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Duquesne and host Pittsburgh each handed the Norfolk State volleyball team a 3-0 loss on Saturday during the second day of the Panther Classic at Pitt's Fitzgerald Field House.
 
Pittsburgh won by 25-20, 25-11 and 25-18 scores in an early afternoon match. After a couple-hour break, Duquesne kept NSU winless on the season, winning 25-19, 25-22 and 25-20 in a three-set sweep.
 
Junior Jessica Johnson led the Spartans in both matches, tallying nine kills against Pittsburgh and then adding 12 against Duquesne. She was NSU's lone representative on the all-tournament team.
 
The Spartans (0-8) kept their mistakes to a minimum against Pittsburgh in the first matchup. NSU hit .172 and actually had one fewer attack error on more swings than the Panthers, who hit .272. Pittsburgh (7-1), though, had a 49-32 edge in digs and a 12-2 advantage in service aces over NSU.
 
Sophomore Dominique Parker hit an efficient .353 with seven kills and five blocks, four of them of the solo variety.
 
NSU fell behind early to Pitt to start the match, 6-2. The Panthers scored six straight for an eight-point lead, but then a couple of kills by Johnson helped the Spartans chip away at the deficit. The Panthers extended the lead to seven, and then Parker had back-to-back blocks to start an 8-3 run. NSU got to within two at 22-20 on an error on Pitt, but the Panthers scored the last three points of the first stanza.
 
Pitt scored six straight in the second set and built its lead to double digits for an easy win. The Panthers jumped ahead 8-3 in the third set and looked to cruise, but NSU hung tough. Junior Darcy Moore had two service aces during a short 4-0 run, and a little later freshman Hope Forsythe had a kill and a block that gave the Spartans their first lead of the match, 15-14.
 
The Panthers scored five straight to grab the lead back, but freshman Clarke Tyler and Johnson had back-to-back kills to make it 20-18. Pitt, though, scored the last five points of the match.
 
Moore had her second straight double-double with 24 assists and 10 digs.
 
Against Duquesne in a late afternoon contest, Forsythe hit .304 with 10 kills for a Spartan team that hit .200 compared to .278 for the Dukes (5-4).
 
Duquesne jumped out to an 8-3 lead to start the match before the teams started to trade points. The Dukes eventually went up by six, 14-8, and later stretched the advantage to seven, 19-12. Johnson had a couple of kills to get NSU going, and Forsythe had a kill and a pair of service aces on set point to hold the Dukes back near the end of the set.
 
Neither team could get an advantage early in the second set until a 6-1 run for Duquesne made it 15-8. Facing a 20-12 deficit, the Spartans stormed back. Junior Meghan Peji had a kill to kick start things, and a short time later Johnson had two straight services aces to cut the Duquesne lead to three. Forsythe, Parker and sophomore Tori Tulensru threw down kills to get NSU to within two each time, but the Spartans were unable to get over the hump.
 
NSU fell behind by a 7-2 score in the third set, a deficit that eventually reach eight at 11-3. The Dukes pushed their lead to 10 at 17-7 and then went ahead by a 20-9 score. But again the Spartans had a response. Forsythe had two straight kills to start things off, and she and Johnson had back-to-back kills to cap a 6-2 run. That short burst made it a more respectable 24-20 before an NSU service error ended the match.
 
Johnson completed the double-double with a team-leading 10 digs, while Moore nearly had one as well with 19 assists and nine digs.
 
Arielle Love had 11 kills to lead Duquesne.
 
NSU will take part in the Carolina Classic next weekend at South Carolina.