PITTSBURGH — Pitt volleyball earned a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, allowing them to host the first four rounds through to the Final Four.
The Panthers finished the season 25-4 overall, 16-2 in the ACC to earn a share of the conference crown and on a five match winning streak. Head coach Dan Fisher is ready to play in front of the home crowd through to the Final Four and is ecstatic for the postseason.
“We are excited here to be hosting in Pittsburgh,” Fisher said in a press conference on Wednesday at the Petersen Events Center. “We’re excited to be ACC Champions. When you put together this team…when we put together this team, started planning and had our first opening meetings, we talked about being able to host, winning an ACC Championship and hopefully winning a National Championship and so this is what we’ve been dreaming about and preparing for.”
Fisher and Pitt volleyball have their second ever No. 1 seed, the second in the past three years. Back in 2021, they earned a No. 1 seed (No. 3 overall) and defeated UMBC and rival Penn State in the first two rounds at the Petersen Events Center and then Kansas and No. 6 Purdue (No. 2 seed) in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, respectively, at Fitzgerald Field House to make it to their first ever Final Four.
Pitt also made an Elite Eight in 2020 and the Final Four last season, making it three straight Elite Eights and back-to-back Final Fours.
This squad has many players from the past two to three postseasons that will provide insight and play vital roles in this upcoming NCAA Tournament. This includes graduate students in middle blocker Chiamaka Nwokolo and setter Lexis Akeo, redshirt senior outside hitter Valeria Vazquez Gomez, senior outside hitter and serve specialist Cat Flood along with juniors in ACC Setter of the Year Rachel Fairbanks and libero/defensive specialist Emmy Klika.
That experience is something that separates this year’s team from 2021, not only for the players, but the coaching staff as well.
“Well, I think there’s…We’ve gotten better with the itinerary of helping them plan out kind of their days,” Fisher said. “We’ve gotten better at working on kind of, along with our sports psychologists, like drowning out external noise and I think we have more players on the team that have been there. I know not everyone, but we still have a lot of players that been in Elite Eight, Final Four, Final Four and so I think there’s a level of that they know how to prepare and there’s some confidence in knowing they can do it.”
Coming into the NCAA Tournament Selection Show Sunday night, Fisher did not have great confidence that his team would get a No. 1 seed. It wasn’t that Fisher didn’t think Pitt had a shot, rather, he had no prior hint that his team would host, finding out when the rest of the country did.
Two things played a major role in Pitt volleyball earning that No. 1 seed: non-conference schedule and play in the final 10 games.
Teams that Pitt faced in the non-conference include BYU, SEC champion Kentucky home-and-away, Marquette on the road, plus Oregon, James Madison, High Point and UMBC as well. UMBC won the America East and High Point won the Big South, while James Madison finished with a No. 24 ranking in the RPI, earning themselves an at-large bid.
Pitt beat Kentucky both times during Labor Day weekend and swept then ranked No. 24 Marquette on Sept. 8. They did lose to BYU and Oregon, but the BYU loss came on the first game of the season on Aug. 25 in Montana and they almost came back and reverse swept No. 7 Oregon on Sept. 14, but lost in five sets.
The final 10 matches saw Pitt go 9-1, which included a sweep over the then ranked No. 8 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Atlanta on Nov. 11 and a reverse sweep of then ranked No. 4 Louisville Cardinals on Nov. 18 in front of a program record 8,856 fans at the Petersen Events Center.
The only loss for the Panthers came in a failed reverse sweep attempt in five sets against the Florida State Seminoles on Nov. 3 on the road. The Seminoles and the Panthers would share the ACC Title, with both teams at 16-2 in conference play, and the Seminoles taking the automatic qualifier spot.
Despite earning the final No. 1 seed, No. 4 overall, Pitt volleyball has their rival Louisville in the same bracket as them as a No. 2 seed. The rest of the seeded teams include No. 3 Creighton, No. 4 Washington State, No. 5 Dayton, No. 6 Utah State and No. 7 Auburn and No. 8 USC, making for a tough road back to the Final Four for Fisher and his team.
“Well, I don’t think it’s the easiest,” Fisher said on Pitt’s quadrant. “Again, I just think if you look at the RPI it makes sense. That’s what we got, and I think we had a tough road last year too and we found a way. So, if we can advance, we’ll be really well prepared.”
Pitt volleyball will face Coppin State in the First Round Friday night, 7 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center. The winner will face the winner of the 4:00 p.m. game Friday featuring No. 8 USC and UMBC in the Second Round on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
The Panthers have spent this week preparing for quality competition, but playing back-t0-back games in the first two rounds is something that Fisher wants to change going forward in future NCAA Tournaments.”
“A day in between is more ideal,” Fisher said. “That being said we’re used to it. Preseason we do it. The girls that play international multiple days in a row…We’ve been lobbying as coaches for a day in between. There is a day no in between the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight Rounds. Ideally, for preparation, and for rest and load reasons, a day in between is better.”
While the first two rounds for of the NCAA Tournament will take place at the Petersen Events Center, the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight will occur at Fitzgerald Field House, the home court for Pitt volleyball.
Fisher said that this NCAA Tournament has the best teams overall of any he’s coached in and that it shows the growth of the sport going forward.
“Home court is an advantage, and we’ll take it,” Fisher said. “That being said, this is arguable the deepest field in the history of NCAA women’s volleyball and the teams are very good and advancing won’t be easy.”
