No. 8 Pitt hadn’t faced off against Louisville since an ill-fated Final Four meeting last December, and unfortunately for the Panthers, it ended in heartache once again.
No. 6 Louisville snapped Pitt’s nine-match win streak by sweeping the Panthers, 25-21, 25-23, 25-22, Friday night at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, handing the Panthers their first ACC loss and securing a spot near the top of the conference standings.
It was a night in which Louisville outhit (.388 to .259) Pitt and took advantage of 16 attack errors to knock Pitt for the first time in weeks.
Pitt got off to a hot start in the first set, building an early 5-0 lead with a couple of kills from Olivia Babcock and Torrey Stafford and a couple more Louisville attack errors, and the lead stretched to 7-1 before the Cardinals were able to regroup.
But Louisville certainly regrouped, and after trailing just behind the Panthers for the majority of the first set, finally notched the first set at 18 all. A Louisville service error gave Pitt a lead, but the Cardinals benefited from a couple of late errors to take the first set 25-21.
A back-and-forth start to the second set was eventually knotted at nine after a Valeria Vazquez Gomez kill and a Cards’ attack error, and the Panthers took a 13-11 lead a few points later courtesy of an Emma Monks’ kill.
An Anna DeBeer kill fresh out of a media timeout shrank the Pitt lead to 15-14 at the midway point of the second set, and the Cardinals tied it up on the next point with a Phekran Kong block and took the lead off a Babcock attack error.
And the Cardinals didn’t give up the lead again, despite Pitt fighting back within a point a few times late in the set — another DeBeer kill giving Louisville a 25-23 second set win.
The third set featured a little more of the same as the Cardinals seemed to be just a step ahead, building leads of 10-7, 14-10 16-13, and Pitt just wasn’t quite able to close the gap. An Aiko Jones kill stretched Louisville’s lead to 20-16, and Louisville closed it out.
Yet another DeBeer kill clinched the third set — and the match — for the Cardinals.
Chiamaka Nwokolo was impressive again for Pitt, leading the way with a .667 hitting percentage (a match-high) and seven kills. Rachel Fairbanks also hit well, boasting a .500 hitting percentage, adding a team-high 33 assists.
Stafford led Pitt with 10 kills, with Babcock adding nine and Monks adding eight. Monks also led the way with three blocks, Stafford adding two and Babcock adding another.
Pitt (15-3, 6-1 ACC) will be back in action this weekend, taking on Notre Dame in South Bend, In. at 1 p.m. on Sunday. And the Panthers will have another chance to play Louisville later this year, hosting the Cardinals at the Petersen Events Center on Nov. 18.
