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Pitt women’s volleyball team prepares for fifth consecutive NCAA tournament.
In 2016, after years of coming just shy of its coveted destination, the Pitt volleyball team was selected for the NCAA tournament, ending a 12- year drought in which it missed out on its sports biggest event.
More than five years later, the Panthers were again included in the field, marking the fifth consecutive season they’ve made it. As their name was revealed on the selection show broadcast Sunday, their players let out a collective cheer, but after a few seconds, the clapping subsided. The place they were headed has become a familiar one.
After finishing its season on a 12-match win streak, placing it third in the ACC behind Louisville and Notre Dame, Pitt earned an atlarge berth to the tournament with a 16-4 record.
It will head to Omaha, Neb., where the entirety of the tournament is taking place, in something of a groove. The Panthers haven’t just won matches; they’ve dominated them. Following three-set sweeps of Clemson and Virginia Tech last week to conclude the regular season, they’ve won their past 12 matches by a combined margin of 36 sets to five.
In the tournament, they’ll face LIU in the first round April 14, with the winner of that match facing No. 14 national seed Utah the following day. Both matches take place at 10:30 p.m. and air on ESPN3.
LIU went 9-5 and finished second in the Northeast Conference standings. It was set to face Sacred Heart in the league’s championship, but there was a positive COVID19 test within the Sacred Heart program and due to subsequent contact tracing, it was unable to meet the conference’s minimum roster requirements, allowing LIU to secure the NEC’s automatic NCAA tournament berth.
Pitt’s strong push to wrap up the regular season wasn’t just limited to the court.
On Monday, senior Kayla Lund was named ACC player of the year, marking the second consecutive season she has won the award. In the process, she became the first repeat winner in the conference’s history. Joining Lund on the all-league first team was fellow senior Chinaza Ndee, while junior Sabrina Starks, who will be competing in the NCAA tournament next week about 20 miles from her hometown of Springfield, Neb., was named to the second team.
Men’s soccer
In its lone game last week, Pitt notched a 2-0 home shutout of Notre Dame, its third clean sheet in six games this spring. It was the Panthers’ fourth consecutive win, which has made up the majority of their 5-1 record during the spring portion of their schedule.
That run of success has vaulted Pitt up to No. 3 in the national poll, behind only conference mate Clemson and defending national champion Georgetown, the latter of which eliminated the Panthers in the tournament’s second round in 2019 on its way to a title.
In the victory against the Fighting Irish last Saturday, Pitt got goals from sophomore Arturo Ordonez and senior Alexander Dexter, both of which came in the second half.
Baseball
A midseason slide has continued for the Panthers, who most recently dropped two of three games in a series against No. 12 Notre Dame.
While Pitt has held on to a No. 24 ranking in the national poll, its season has begun to trend in the wrong direction. Since a 12-5 start, which included a 5-1 record against teams ranked at the time, it has dropped five of its past six games.
In a series in which the Panthers struggled to put up runs, crossing the plate nine times in those three games, junior outfielder Ron Washington Jr. went 3 for 10 with a home run and sophomore outfielder Kyle Hess went 4 for 10 with a run and an RBI.
Softball
The Panthers dropped three of their four games to Louisville, making their record this season 10- 21 overall and 5-16 in the ACC.
Pitt earned its lone win of the series Sunday on a walk-off, three-run home run from graduate student Walker Barbee, her fourth homer of the season. In a 9-5 loss Monday, sophomore EC Taylor stole two bases, giving her an ACC-leading 24 steals on the season.
Gymnastics
Sophomore Lauren Beckwith scored a 9.9 on the balance beam while her teammate, graduate student Katrina Coca, got a 9.7 in the same event at the NCAA regionals in Morgantown, W.Va. Beckwith’s score tied her for third place. While a career high, it did not qualify her for the national championships in Fort Worth, Texas.