PITTSBURGH — No. 1 Pitt Volleyball once again had to do what many would assume unthinkable, as they found themselves down two sets to No. 2 Louisville in the Elite Eight Saturday afternoon at Fitzgerald Field House.
With hard work and determination, improved play and the support from a sold out home crowd, the Panthers made the comeback and made it to their third straight Final Four.
Pitt Volleyball & Reverse Sweeps
Pitt has had a history this year of going down two sets and making comebacks. They had made four reverse sweep attempts prior, two that failed late in the fifth set against both then ranked No. 7 Oregon on Sept. 14 at Fitzgerald Field House and Florida State on the road on Nov. 3 and two that succeeded against then ranked No. 11 Georgia Tech at Fitzgerald Field House on Oct. 6 and also against then ranked Louisville on Nov 18.
That win against the Cardinals came in front of a program record 8,856 fans at the Petersen Events Center. The importance of that win not only earned the Panthers a share of the ACC Title for the second straight season, but also a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
When Pitt went down two sets to Louisville in their first matchup on Oct. 13, they were playing in front of a massive and loud crowd at the KFC Yum! Center, the home of Louisville’s basketball programs. They would lose that set in three sets in a sweep, with Louisville playing almost flawless volleyball, hitting .388, the highest hitting percentage for a Pitt opponent this season.
The importance of the home crowd played a big role in their first reverse sweep against the Yellow Jackets, but even more so with almost 9,000 fans at the Petersen Events Center a month ago. Despite going down, the Panthers had their home fans who believed in them the whole way to make comebacks both times and once again on Saturday.
“In terms of it never feeling over and it feeling hard, it was the same,” Pitt Volleyball head coach Dan Fisher said on the comparison between the two reverse sweeps against Louisville.
Serving Makes Important Difference
How a team serves usually plays an important difference in who wins a match and this Elite Eight battle surely proved that.
The Panthers had 11 service aces to 11 service errors, while the Cardinals had five service aces to 16 service errors, a season high for them. Those 11 service aces for the Panthers are a season-high and program record in an NCAA Tournament match.
Pitt also won the serve-receive as well, with a .935 defensive percentage on serves, compared to Louisville’s .885. Pitt made just five errors on 77 Louisville serves, while Louisville made 11 errors on 96 Pitt serves.
Redshirt senior outside hitter Valeria Vazquez Gomez led the Panthers with four service aces in the match and was perfect in reception, 21 out of 21 serves.
First-year right side hitter Olivia Babcock initially struggled in the match, with five service errors through the first three sets. As a top-spin server, Babcock has great power on her serve, but that sometimes doesn’t work out in her favor and makes her more prone to service errors. The benefit of her serve is that it also can create chances for long service runs and service aces, as back row players struggle to deal with the serve.
She eventually got her serve going in the fourth set, with three service aces and six straight serves to help Pitt turn around an early deficit to take an 8-5 lead, one they never relinquished, which allowed them to tie match at two sets each. Vazquez Gomez and graduate student libero/defensive specialist Logan Mosley also provided service aces, giving Pitt five total in the fourth set.
Babcock now has 10 service aces so far in the NCAA Tournament, setting a new record for most in a single postseason in program history. If she keeps her serve going, she’ll surely make that record hard to break, even for herself going forward.
Senior outside hitter and serve specialist Cat Flood also had a great serving run of her own in the fifth set. She had a service ace and helped the Panthers build a 7-1 lead in the fifth set, which eventually ended in them completing the comeback.
First-year outside hitter Torrey Stafford and junior libero/defensive specialist Emmy Klika both did great for Pitt in the back row against Louisville’s serve. Stafford made just two errors on 29 serves, .931, while Klika made only one error on 23 serves, .957.
Louisville dominated in the service line in their Final Four win over Pitt in 2022, with 10 service aces to Pitt’s five. Senior outside hitter Anna DeBeer had five service aces in the win last season, but finished with 0 in this match, along with four service errors.
The change up from last year to this one in the NCAA Tournament proved massive for the Panthers and played a major role in them winning the match.
“We felt good about our service planning going in, but man, like even Cat in the fifth set, what an incredible run, ” Fisher said. “We’ve talked about in other press conferences, but people look so much at who kills the most balls or maybe who has the digs or assists, but a lot of times it comes down to someone coming for a four-point service run to give you that separation. So we got big lifts tonight.”
Shutting Down DeBeer/Luper Crucial for Pitt
DeBeer and junior outside hitter Charitie Luper both played incredibly well against Pitt in the first two meetings of the season.
DeBeer had a 15 kills and a .429 hitting percentage in the sweep at at the KFC Yum! Center on Oct. 13 and then set a career-high with 29 kills, while also hitting .404 in the loss on the road in November. Luper had 10 kills and hit .364 against Pitt in October at home and had a season-high 24 kills, while hitting .327 in the loss at the Petersen Events Center in most recent matchup.
While DeBeer did have 13 kills, she hit .135 and also had those four service errors. Luper had eight kills, but hit .026, her second lowest percentage of the season, and two service errors with just one service ace.
Holding two of Louisville’s best players to below .150 in hitting proved crucial for Pitt, as they excelled in those final three sets, with the threats of Luper and DeBeer almost neutralized.
Freshman Duo Star Again for Pitt Volleyball
Babcock and Stafford continue to dominate for Pitt and their presence on the court has put them back into another Final Four.
Stafford had her second double-double of the NCAA Tournament, with a team-high 18 kills and 11 digs in the win over Louisville. Her 11 digs tied her with Klika for most on the team. She also hit .378 and provided two blocks as well.
Babcock finished second best with 16 kills, five blocks and tied Vazquez Gomez for the second most digs with eight. She also hit .286 and proved a threat offensively, with a ferocious swing that keeps opponents guessing, and in fear.
Stafford, who is second on the team in kills and digs is ready for her first Final Four and the impact she hopes to have to win a first National Title for her team.
“I’m very excited and I’m with a group of girls that I love and who love me,” Stafford said. “So I feel like I’m just right along and ready to win this National Championship.”
Win the Block, Win the Match
Pitt finished with 14.0 total blocks against Louisville, a new program record in an NCAA Tournament match. Graduate student Emma Monks had nine total blocks, second most in program history in an NCAA Tournament, playing a big game against her hometown school, hailing from Louisville herself.
Monks has 25 total blocks and 24 block assists in her first NCAA Tournament, both program records for most in an NCAA Tournament in program history. She has stepped up in numerous ways this season, with both middle blockers in Florida transfer in junior Bre Kelley and sophomore Rachel Jepsen both out injured.
She also finished with eight kills and hit .400, including the final kill of the match, smashing the ball off of Louisville junior libero/defensive specialist Elena Scott’s face, a fellow Louisville native herself. The ending of the match almost seems “poetic” to some, but to those who have seen her grow and play well this season, it’s no surprise.
“I think that’s a moment she’ll remember,” Fisher said on Monks’ final kill. “But more importantly for us, she was a little shaky our first two matches of the tournament and she’s continued to get better and better and better and that’s a good sign for us going forward.”
Graduate student middle blocker Chiamaka Nwokolo also provided five blocks, including two solo blocks, her second game of the postseason doing so. Her five solo blocks rank No. 2 in an NCAA Tournament in program history, while her 17 total blocks rank No. 5.
In-System Rachel Fairbanks Is Unstoppable
Pitt Volleyball plays a 5-1 rotation this season, thanks to Babcock and Fairbanks. Babcock is athletic enough as a right side to make digs and play in the back row, while Fairbanks is an incredible distributor on the court, giving her teammates the best opportunities to score.
Changing from the 6-2 to a 5-1 rotation makes Fairbanks the focal point of the offense. Instead of her coming out of the match, she plays essentially the entire match and she has made that change possible with her play.
She made 48 assists in the win against Louisville, excelling in the final three sets with Pitt volleyball playing in-system, rather than out-of-system.
A team playing fully in system means that their receive pass or dig is good enough to allow them multiple passing options. This creates more and better opportunities to score, than if a team is out of system.
If a team is out of system, they either made a poor dig or a poor pass off the serve. This leads to scrambling from players and bad/less opportunities to score points.
While Pitt usually plays well out-of-system, their in-system play benefited them greatly. They hit .560 in the third set and .545 in the fifth set, compared to Louisville hitting .200 in the third set and then -.067 in the fifth set.
Fairbanks credited her play to her teammates, and with the understanding that they couldn’t drop another set if they were to prolong their season, they improved their play and executed how they needed to win the match.
“When you’re down 2-0, you have nothing to lose, you have to give it your all,” Fairbanks said. “So there’s no other option, you can’t hold back anything and I think that we executed well and giving single play and touch our all.”
Fifth Set Revenge From Final Four 2022
Losing 15-2 in the fifth set in the Final Four a year ago to your biggest rival is something that Pitt volleyball nor the fans truly forgot going into this season or any of the three matches with Louisville.
The Panthers flipped it around this season, winning 15-7 and dominating in the final fifth set, enacting some revenge on the Cardinals who ended their season a year ago.
Fairbanks played on that team last year and suffered that difficult loss in Omaha, Neb. While she doesn’t like to look back at previous losses, she surely enjoyed the comeback and the execution in the fifth set by her and her teammates.
“We don’t enjoy looking back on past games, we just look forward, look ahead,” Fairbanks said. “This year we prepared better, we practiced more efficiently and I think that we were just, we executed well and because our preparation was so elaborate it just worked. But very satisfying.”
Pitt Volleyball takes Momentum in Rivalry
The win for Pitt Volleyball is a big one in the rivalry with Louisville. Two reverse sweeps against your biggest rival with such big implications truly makes a big difference, particularly after losing in the Final Four to them a season ago.
The Panthers very well could have lost in sweeps in both matches, but never gave up at all throughout both matches and earned wins that fans will remember for years to come.
With Pitt in the Final Four again, a National Title is only two wins away. If Pitt secured the National Championship before Louisville, the bragging rights would belong to them for the foreseeable future.
