Panthers eliminated
Pitt knocked out of NCAA volleyball tournament in crushing fashion.
Pitt shook off the loss of one off its top players, an abysmal stretch where it couldn’t do much of anything right and rallied for what at times looked to be improbable success in the fifth and deciding set in its match with Michigan.
Like so many bright spots on this night against the Wolverines, however, they were fleeting. And so was the 12th-seeded Panthers’ hope of making it into the Sweet 16.
Instead, Michigan (24-9) was at times dominant and certainly took advantage of a multitude of Pitt errors as the Wolverines set up a third-round matchup with No. 5 Texas after a crushing, 3-2 (19-25, 25-22, 25-17, 2125, 15-9) victory against the Panthers (30-2) in the second round of the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournament at Petersen Events Center.
“These are pressure matches and momentum can get going and you hope it goes your way and I think that’s what happened,” Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. “We did a great job blocking and, by that time, they changed their system of blocking in the fourth set and I think our players had a pretty good read of what they were trying to do in each rotation.”
Michigan is back in the Sweet 16 for the seventh time, the first since 2016.
Pitt had pushed into the second round of the tournament on five other occasions, including the previous two seasons, but never made it to the third round. Each of the past three times the Panthers won their first-round match, in 2003, 2016 and 2017, it was Penn State that did the honors in ending their season in University Park.
They had never even won a second set in their previous five second-round matches.
“I consider this a step forward because were in a fifth set, but it still stings a lot,” Pitt coach Dan Fisher said.
Pitt played without sophomore Kayla Lund, a firstteam all-ACC outside hitter, went out in the third set of the first-round win Friday against Iona. Lund was on the floor for warm-ups but watched from the bench, a walking boot on her injured right ankle.
Instead of Lund, Pitt started redshirt sophomore Zoi Faki, who finished with 12 kills for the Panthers
“I don’t know the answer [of the impact of Lund not playing] but I know it was and Zoi had a really good game and stepped in for her,” Fisher said. “We had been playing one way for pretty much the whole year and the comfort of playing the same system for a while.”
Playing a new system apparently led to several communications breakdowns, which were especially evident on defense when they got mixed up on coverage several times. Players bumped into each other and deflected balls that would have been easy returns under normal circumstances.
“It’s hard to say because our entire team, when we get into those tough situations, we just try to get back to ‘Pitt Good’ and that’s our system and we’re there for each other,” Pitt senior libero Angela Seman said. “We got a little too amped in certain situations, we were digging little too high and were digging in plays we usually call down and I think the emotions got the best of us in key situations.”
“Ultimately we just dug a little too big of a hole in the fifth set to overcome,” Fisher said. “But I told the team about how proud I was and what a great season it was. It’s hard to keep in perspective, but a 30-win season is pretty special even though I know right now it stings a lot.”