PITTSBURGH — After sweeping their first two opponents in the opening two rounds of the 2024 Women’s Volleyball Championship, Pitt faced their toughest tournament opponent foe yet as the Oregon Ducks traveled to the Petersen Events Center for the enthralling Sweet 16 matchup.
Despite playing in separate conferences, the Panthers and Ducks have already met this season. The Panthers managed to go on the road to Eugene and claim a clean 3-0 sweep of the Ducks back in late August. This time around, things went a bit different as the Ducks took the Panthers to a fifth and final set before falling to Pitt in the match, 3-2.
“We have tremendous respect for Matt Ulmer and the Oregon program,” Pitt head coach Dan Fisher said following the game. “They are regularly a team that goes deep into tournaments and they gave us a ton to deal with tonight.”
The Panthers controlled the first set, albeit the score did not reflect that effort as the Panthers won the first set by the score of 25-19. Pitt had six attacking errors, three serving errors and got aced four times in the first set while holding the Ducks to a hitting percentage of .069 in the set.
The Panthers jumped out to a small lead early in the first set but went on a 7-1 run that was capped off with back-to-back aces from Mallorie Meyer to extend their lead t0 18-10. While Oregon went on a 6-1 run themselves afterwards, the Panthers managed to close the set out with a strong kill from Blaire Bayless.
Olivia Babcock led the way in the first set with seven kills and she finished the match with a record-setting 31 kills. For Babcock, her 31 kills are the most in an NCAA Tournament match in Pitt history since the sport moved to it’s 25-point scoring rules in 2008.
“I just really felt the trust from my teammates today,” Pitt right side Olivia Babcock said following the game. “[Everybody knows] that I play a very high-risk, high-reward game. I don’t tip a lot so that does cause me to make some hitting errors but even then my team still has full confidence to give me the ball and I feel like just knowing that they had confidence in me, gave me confidence in myself to execute.”
The Ducks came out with a different energy to start the second set and jumped out to early leads of 5-1 and 11-6 behind two strong blocks and a kill from Michelle Ohwobete. These early runs resulted in a Pitt timeout but it appeared to get the Panthers back into the grove as they went on a 5-2 run and ultimately pulled back to a two-point deficit.
The Ducks won the race to 20 in the second set after two more kills from Ohwobete but then the Panthers woke up. After trailing 22-18, the Panthers went on a 6-1 run to reach set point but failed to convert as they lost the set, 26-24, on a service ace and an illegal attack.
The third set was all Panthers as Babcock and Bre Kelley took over on the attacking front. Babcock recorded seven kills and Kelley added six kills in the third set in which Pitt won 25-16. Oregon held a 9-7 lead early in the set but the Panthers pulled ahead behind an 11-2 run.
Just like in the second set, the Ducks came out in the fourth set with what seemed like replenished energy. The Ducks jumped out to a 12-5 lead early in the set and forced the Panthers to call both of their timeouts. Following the second timeout, the Ducks kept their foot on the gas and led the Panthers by 10 points at 17-7.
The Panthers then went on runs of 4-0 and 7-2 to pull back within three at 22-19 which forced the Ducks’ second timeout of the set. Following the break, the Ducks managed to close the set out and send the match to a fifth and final set.
Prior to the fifth set, the two teams went into the locker rooms to get one final message from their coach and in the Panthers’ case, to let out a final scream to help them reset after the first four sets.
“There was a scream and we said this in the past but the scream is literally just to get our brains to stop going,” Pitt setter Rachel Fairbanks said following the game. “Just scream, let it all out, reset and move on. That is also kind of what was said [by the coaches,] like intentionally take a second to just reset and play our game. Our good is we will win so we just needed to find a way to get back to Pitt good.”
On the final set’s opening point, the Panthers won a challenge to take the set’s first point and followed it up with three more consecutive points which forced the Ducks to call a timeout. Following the timeout, the Ducks managed to fight back and pulled the score back to even at 8-8 which is when the Panthers executed their timeout.
The Panthers came out of their timeout and scored the match’s next five points behind two kills from Babcock and two errors on the Ducks. With the Panthers on match point, the Ducks managed to score off the next three rallies to bring it back to a 14-12 game before the Ducks season came to an end on an attacking error.
“Just nothing but positive thoughts on my team and the heart we showed tonight,” Fisher said. “This is the NCAA Tournament, it is going to be tough, it is going to be ugly at times and sometimes you need your B and C-game. Just an incredible, gritty effort out of our team to find a way to perceiver when it was not always going our way.”
The Panthers received double-doubles from each Babcock and Stafford in the Sweet 16 victory. Babcock recorded 12 digs in addition to her record-setting 31 kills. Stafford added 14 kills and 12 digs. Kelley added double-digit kills and Rachel Fairbanks recorded 54 assists in the five-set win over Oregon.
The Ducks had four players finish the loss with double-digit kills and three players with double-digit digs. Ohwobete finished with a double-double as she had 14 kills and 12 digs. Cristin Cline logged 12 digs and a team-high 46 assists for the Ducks.
The Panthers now advance onto the Elite Eight and will face off with the SEC champions, Kentucky, on Saturday evening. Kentucky beat Missouri in four sets earlier in the day on Thursday to claim their spot in the final eight.
