PITTSBURGH — Sleep, eat, sweep and repeat. That has been the mindset that Pitt’s women’s volleyball team has been living throughout this weekend.
After sweeping Morehead State last night, it was no secret that the Pitt Panthers would have a harder task on their plate in hosting Oklahoma tonight in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball tournament.
For Pitt the expectations are high being the top-seed and holding down home court advantage. The Sooners had nothing to lose, and they fought with everything they had. But ultimately Pitt came out on top once again tonight sweeping the Sooners in three sets tonight at the Petersen Events Center. (28-26, 25-21, 25-19).
For the Panthers, it was the first time playing in back-to-back matches since the middle of September when they traveled to Malibu, California. In those two matches, Pitt swept Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara.
“It would have been ideal for some our players to rest,” Pitt head coach Dan Fisher said involving not having a day off from last night. “But I think we kind of mapped it out as a team and talked about this is how it will be. So, it was expected. We did a few things early in the week for Oklahoma, then shifted focus to Morehead State.”
Oklahoma kept it close in the early parts of the first set. The Panthers led 6-5 before going on a 4-0 run. Pitt head coach Dan Fisher challenged three calls in the first set. The first challenge he was successful after it was reversed that none of Pitt’s players contacted Sooners’ Alexis Shelton’s attack error. Fisher, then challenged on call that Emmy Klika did not make double contact but was unsuccessful. After the unsuccessful second challenge, the Panthers attained their largest lead of the first set, which was seven points.
“They (Oklahoma) really run a fast offense; I would argue the fastest in the country.” Fisher said. “But they definitely exceeded my expectations on how well they played defensively, but we just persevered, and we are in the Sweet 16.”
The Panthers took a 19-13 lead in the first set, and it looked like the team was going to roll through the rest of the set. However, the Sooners kept battling and had a couple of chances to win the first set. But a service error and a Torey Stafford kill diminished those opportunities. Pitt ultimately won the first set after Valeria Vazquez Gomez recorded a kill. Vazquez Gomez’s kill was originally ruled an error, but Fisher challenged for the third time in the set and was successful. Stafford and Vazquez Gomez both recorded five kills for the Panthers in the first set. Impressively, Oklahoma recorded seven blocks against Pitt in the first set which a lot of teams struggled to do against Pitt in an entire match.
“I was really impressed with the job that (Oklahoma head coach) Aaron Mansfield and his staff are doing,” Fisher said. “They were very well prepared for us, and they came ready to battle. All week long we were struggling some sicknesses and some girls banged up and we found a way to win when weren’t totally feeling our best. So I’m really proud of this group.”
The Sooners looked like the better team in the second part of the first set and took some of their momentum in the second set. Oklahoma led early in the second set, 6-4. The Panthers managed to score on six of the next seven plays to take a 10-7 lead. In the middle of the second set, the Sooners went on a 4-0 run to take the lead back, 12-11. Two of those points coming off attack errors and the others coming from a kill and a service ace. Despite trailing again, the Panthers continued to apply pressure scoring on eight of the next 11 plays. Pitt led 24-19 and had a couple of chances to close out the set. But kills by Shelton and KJ Burgess made it look like for a brief stint that the Sooners were going to make a comeback. But on the next play, the Panthers closed out the second set with Stafford assisting on Olivia Babcock’s kill.
In the third set, it was tied at 13. The Panthers outscored the Sooners the rest of the way 12-6. Rachel Fairbanks’ assist to Olivia Babcock’s kill was the match sealing point. Overall, defensively, the Panthers played better as the game went on allowing fewer points each set and the Sooners hitting percentage dropping as well. The Sooners also committed eight errors in the third set, which was the most they committed in a set in the game. Shelton committed a game-high of 10 errors. For the Panthers, Olivia Babcock recorded a game-high 13 kills, seven of the kills coming in the third set and a team-high two services aces.
Oklahoma finished the season with a 15-11 overall record. For the Sooners, it was the first time playing in the NCAA tournament since 2019.
With the win, the Panthers move on to the Regional Semifinals for the fifth straight season. Next weekend, Pitt will now host Oregon in the third round with a date and time to be determined. Pitt opened the regular season against Oregon in which the Panthers swept the Ducks.
“I think the girls probably need to just take a day off and finals are coming and not think about volleyball,” Fisher said with a laugh. “But we played (Oregon) so early in the season that I do not think we can put too much on that. They’re a different team now and we’re going to have to prepare for a really tough opponent and coach.”
