PITTSBURGH — The top-seeded Pittsburgh Panthers welcomed Morehead St. into the Petersen Events Center to kickoff their quest of an NCAA Volleyball Tournament title run and showed why they claimed the first overall seed in the tournament as they easily downed the Eagles, 3-0.
“[Morehead St.] hung in tough with us for a long time,” Pitt head coach Dan Fisher said after the match. “They played hard defensively, they pushed us. I thought it was, hopefully, what we needed. We were able to get a lot of players time in roles that we think we will need them in this tournament run.”
After surrendering the opening point of the first set, the Panthers went on a quick 4-0 run. The Eagles climbed back after back-to-back errors from the Panthers to make it 4-3. Then, the two teams traded points until the Panthers went on another small run to create a small gap between the squads.
The lead stayed at two for the Panthers for a majority of the first set until the score became 17-15 and then they grabbed control of the set and closed the period out on a 8-2 run. Olivia Babcock carried the Panthers in the first set as she finished with seven kills while Torrey Stafford added four and a service ace.
The Panthers used the momentum that they built at the end of the first set to jump onto the Eagles early in the second set. The Panthers quickly jumped out to a 7-3 lead because of back-to-back aces from Rachel Fairbanks and two kills and a block from Stafford.
The Eagles responded with a 4-2 run themselves but that was quickly answered with a 6-1 tun to push the lead to 16-10. Later in the set, the Panthers forced the Eagles’ second timeout and led 20-12. The Eagles responded with two kills from Amelia Nott but their run ended there as a kill from Babcock ended the set as the Panthers won it, 25-15.
Stafford led the way in the second set with seven kills while Vazquez Gomez added five. Fairbanks totaled four service aces in the set.
The Eagles got two quick kills from M.E. Hargan to begin the third set of play but found themselves down 8-4 due to two strong kills and a service ace from Babcock. The Eagles battled back to make it 12-11 behind three more kills from Hargan.
After Hargan’s five kills in the initial portion of the third set, the Panthers finally re-claimed full momentum and closed the set out on a 13-4 run that was fueled by a strong ace from Babcock and an even more powerful kill from Stafford.
“Something we talk about is ‘no bubbles’ and we kind of let them slip back into the game in that third set,” Stafford said. “I definitely think it was a momentum shift and after that we just kept on stomping and trying to end it out”
The Panthers managed to complete their sweep of the Eagles behind a closing 7-2 run to win the set 25-15.
Stafford led the way against the Eagles as she finished with 14 kills, six digs and a service ace. Babcock ended the match with a double-double as she added 12 kills and 11 digs while Fairbanks had five service aces and 33 assists.
Hargan finished with 10 kills in the loss while Amelia Nott and Maycie Welborn both added five.
With the win, the Panthers move onto the second round of the tournament where they will face off with Oklahoma tomorrow night. The Panthers have not played on back-to-back days since the preseason but with familiarity of coming to the “Big Dance,” the Panthers are prepared to play again and against an even tougher opponent.
