Pitt sweeps Iona, moves to 2nd round
Under normal circumstances, the Pitt women’s volleyball team plays its home matches at venerable Fitzgerald Field House.
Lately, though, the Panthers have found themselves playing host to opponents at Petersen Events Center. So far, they’re playing well to the bigger crowds.
In its first home game in the NCAA Division I tournament, Pitt (30-1) struggled a bit in the opening set, but the 12th-seeded Panthers were able to pull out a 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 25-15) victory over Iona (20-8) to move into the second round of the tournament.
They will face Michigan at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Wolverines beat Navy in the other regional match.
“We were a little tight coming into the night and we settled in a little bit,” Pitt coach Dan Fisher said. “It was good to get that first win off our chests because we haven’t played since last Wednesday and there was a lot of anticipation for this game.”
There might have been even greater of a draw than the 2,807 that attended were it not for the competition the volleyball team faced this weekend. Not only was the Panthers men’s basketball team playing Friday night in the City Game against Duquesne, the football team already had left for Charlotte, N.C., for ACC championship Saturday at Bank of America Stadium.
Even with a plethora of other options for spectators, volleyball only drew 91 fewer fans than in their regular-season finale at Petersen Events Center, Nov. 21 against Georgia Tech.
The effect of playing outside Fitzgerald Field House is not lost on the team.
“Playing in the bigger gyms with the bigger crowds, especially for that, just motivates me even more,” junior right-side hitter Nika Markovic said. “If we could play at The Pete at times, that would be great, but I love the Field House.”
Markovic led the team with 16 kills, including the 1,000th of her career, but Pitt’s front line was dealt a blow when sophomore outside hitter Kayla Lund was helped off the court with an apparent right leg injury.
If she can’t play in the second-round matchup against Michigan, redshirt sophomore Zoi Faki or sophomore middle hitter Chinaza Ndee could get the start.
Faki was the immediate replacement, finishing the match with one kill and two assists.
“At the start of the year we struggled with some injuries, so we have Zoi and we have Chi on the left, so we’ll see what happens in the next 24 hours,” Fisher said. “]Zoi] passed really well and was a little upand-down offensively, and she was really short on attempts. She’s been really good for us at times this year.”
Other match
Michigan 3, Navy 0: With the Midshipmen on a 3-0 run and up, 11-10, in the second set, the Wolverines called a timeout to stop the bleeding.
It couldn’t have worked any better. Michigan reeled off a 7-0 run, helped out by a service ace from Maddi Sgattoni, to take control of the match and close out a 25-23, 25-20, 25-10 win to move into the second round.
“People like to see that from the outside, they think that timeouts are really impactful, and these [players] would probably tell you that they’re probably not, and just give you a break and change things,” Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. “We executed really well right after that ...”