PITTSBURGH — Saturday marked the 19th time in program history that Pitt and Georgia Tech faced off. Throughout the first 18 matches, the Panthers have been dominant against the Yellow Jackets owning a 16-2 record. Throughout the past three months, Pitt has been No. 1 in the country, and the Panthers continued to show today why that is the case.
When both Pitt and Georgia Tech played earlier this season in late September, the Panthers swept the Yellow Jackets in three sets. But this time around the Yellow Jackets were more competitive.
No. 1 Pitt (28-1, 18-1 ACC) knocked off No. 19 Georgia Tech (20-8, 12-7) in five sets (25-10, 24-26, 25-13, 18-25, 17-15) this afternoon at the Fitzgerald Field House. With the win, Pitt won its first outright ACC Title since 2019. It’s also the third time in program history that the Panthers have won the ACC Title outright.
One of the most significant plays that the Panthers will remember this season is their outright clinching title play. Up 16-15 in the final set, Pitt needed to make one more play to make history and they came in clutch. On Rachel Fairbanks’ volley to Olivia Babcock, she was able to the left side of the court and low enough that Georgia Tech’s DeAndra Pierce could not dig the volleyball to win the game.
“They (Georgia Tech) are very capable of playing at a high level in bursts,” Pitt head coach Dan Fisher said. “And you know they really pushed us, and we have an expression that you don’t need to lose to learn and so hopefully we learn a lot from tonight as we watch the video. And I know just know that this kind of game will be good for us as we go into the NCAA tournament.”
The Panthers opened up the first set with a 3-0 lead thanks to a kill by Valeria Vazquez Gomez and two attack errors by the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech responded with Tamara Otene recording a kill and Logan Wiley getting a service ace right after the kill. However, the Panthers scored six unanswered points before the Yellow Jackets called a timeout. The Panthers outscored the Yellow Jackets 16-8 for the rest of the first set.
The Yellow Jackets took its first lead in the second set, 2-1 and continued to fight. The Panthers’ largest lead in the second set was six points when they were up 16-10. However, for the Jackets there was three instances in which the Yellow Jackets scored three consecutive points. Georgia Tech led 21-20 in the second set before Olivia Babcock recorded a kill and an attack error was called on the Yellow Jackets Larissa Mendes. After two consecutive Pitt points, the Yellow Jackets called a timeout. Babcock recorded a kill to give the Panthers a 24-23 lead with an opportunity to close out the set. A kill by Mendes tied the game at 24 and the Yellow Jackets took the lead right after an attack by Otene hit Pitt’s Emily Klika and went out of bounds into the crowd. Georgia Tech won the second set after middle blocker Anna Boezi blocked Babcock’s attack with the volleyball landing on Pitt’s side of the court. For the Panthers, it was only the ninth set they had lost the entire season.
The Yellow Jackets continued some of its momentum in the third set recording the first two points as Pitt’s Vazquez Gomez and Babcock were charged with assist errors. The Panthers then scored four straight points off two kills, a service ace and an attack error by Georgia Tech. Pitt seemed to find its groove again. Later in the set, two kills by Ryla Jones and an attack error gave by the Yellow Jackets gave the Panthers a 12-5 lead before the Yellow Jackets took a timeout. Pitt scored on six of the final eight serves to win the third set. Torey Stafford got the final two kills of the third set, with both of them being assisted by Rachel Fairbanks.
Georgia Tech led throughout most of the fourth set as the team was able to get their kills spotted where they needed to be and get a couple of service aces. Pitt also struggled on attacks earlier on. Georgia Tech owned a 14-9 lead in the fourth set until a couple of attack errors by the Yellow Jackets and a service ace by Cat Flood narrowed the lead to 14-12. However, three straight kills by Georgia Tech helped extend the team’s lead back to five, 17-12. After a Bre Kelly kill, the Panthers only trailed 21-18. But on the ensuing serve, Fairbanks recorded a service error, and the Yellow Jackets scored on three consecutive points off a kill, service ace and a Pitt attack error to close out the set. For Pitt, it was only the third time this season, they had allowed an opponent to win two or more sets in a match.
Georgia Tech’s top outside hitters Tamara Otene and Bianca Bertolino both hit below. 200. However, Otene did record a game-high 19 kills and 20 digs. Behind the trio of Babcock, Kelley and Stafford, they combined to record 49 kills, 23 digs and 21 blocks for Pitt.
Pitt has recorded wins against No. 3 Louisville (twice), No. 4 Penn State, No. 6 Stanford, No. 10 SMU, No. 13 Oregon, No. 19 Georgia Tech (twice) and No. 21 Florida State this season. With the regular season concluded, the Panthers ended the season on a 14-game winning streak and outscoring its opponents 89-10. On the other hand, for the Yellow Jackets, they dropped four consecutive games to conclude the regular season. This was also the fourth consecutive season that Georgia Tech and Pitt went to five sets in Pittsburgh. The Panthers had already clinched a share of the ACC Title after defeating Louisville 3-1 on Wednesday night. This is the third consecutive season Pitt has clinched a share or outright won the ACC Title.
“It’s a time of year to be grateful and with that we try to be a grateful team, the whole year,” Fisher said. “As a competitor and an athlete, you’re always like onto the next. And so, I do think this is one of those moments where hopefully the team realizes what a special year it’s been.”
Pitt will now await its first-round opponent in the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournament. Tomorrow night, the bracket will be revealed during a selection show at 6 p.m.
Between the volleyball team and men’s basketball, they lure the only two bright spots in Pitt athletics at the moment! Go win the national championship ladies!
Soccer team is poised to make another run to the college cup too.
Seems like you are only reading headlines. Men’s soccer is a top ten team and in the 3rd round of the tourney. wrestling is also ranked. In addition the women’s soccer were very competitive in the best conference in the nation which they have proved in the tourney with 6 of the 8 teams in the quarterfinals. It could very well be an all ACC final 4.
Yeah, it would be nice if PSN would cover these “bright spots” more along with men’s soccer and wrestling and write more articles about them. All those teams do is win but PSN is just all about the football team that blew it the second half of the season. This website, I assume is mainly for PITT fans and true PITT fans are fans of ALL PITT athletic teams.