Confident Panthers have big ambitions
As the coach of a team that’s had its share of success, Dan Fisher normally doesn’t allow his players to look further ahead of their upcoming matchup. A moment early on in the Panthers’ practice Tuesday was one of the rare times where he let it slide.
Just a few days after the 2022 NCAA women’s volleyball national championship tournament bracket was released, it seemed as though there was a looming frustration among Fisher’s group. Despite another successful regular season, which included a share of the ACC title and a No. 6 national ranking, the Panthers felt they’d been slighted when it came to their placement in the tournament.
As the workout rolled on, the small banter turned into a group dialogue. One Panther finally had enough and voiced what seemed to be on everyone’s mind.
“How does this not make you motivated?” asked redshirt junior Valeria Vazquez Gomez. “And if you’re not motivated, then what’re you doing here?”
Vazquez Gomez’s teammates were quick to share that story during a media availability Wednesday because, for them, their teammates’ words hit home. A quick glance at the bracket explains why.
Seven of the top 25 teams in the country reside in Pitt’s region. Potential future opponents include defending national champion and No. 2 ranked Wisconsin, perennial power and No. 11 ranked Penn State, No. 12 Florida, No. 18 BYU and No. 21 Central Florida.
While some of the toughest tests the Panthers could see, like the Badgers or Nittany Lions, won’t come until the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight, others like BYU could be waiting around the corner in a second-round matchup, which even Fisher says is less than ideal.
“We think we have a very tough draw — we’ll put it that way,” Fisher said. “Especially, assuming [BYU] gets past James Madison, we think they’re a team at the same level as Georgia Tech. They’re ranked No. 18 in the coaches poll for a reason. So No. 18 vs. No. 6 in the second round is a tough matchup. But if we want to win a championship, we’re going to have to go through good teams.”
After retooling his roster from last year’s Final Four team, Fisher thinks he has a squad that can go on another big run.
The Panthers (27-3) feel their biggest advantage is that they’re battle tested, which has them ready to roll when their first match of the tournament against Colgate (24-5) starts Friday evening at 7 p.m. in Petersen Events Center.
“I think I’ve said to coach Fisher before that this has been one of the coolest evolutions of a team that I’ve ever been on at Pitt,” senior captain Ashley Browske said. “From how we started to how we’re going into the tournament, it’s a completely different team. We’re feeling very confident.”
A difficult nonconference schedule, which included nine teams that qualified for the tournament, forced Pitt to come together and grow as a unit. Browske, along with fellow senior captain Chiamaka Nwokolo, point to early-season victories like the one at home against Ohio State in September as pivotal in showing the entire locker room what it was capable of.
Now, with the lights brighter than ever, the Panthers say they’re ready to roll.
“I think we can all take a second and think, ‘Yes, we did great things this season,’” Browske said. “But what are we going to do and how are we going to move forward in this path?”
The Panthers’ navigation plan will be executed by a handful of familiar faces, like Vazquez Gomez, Browske and Nwokolo, but also a few new ones. While Pitt returns a notable amount of contributors from last year’s team, there’s a handful of newcomers who arrived through the transfer portal.
The most notable addition has been graduate student Courtney Buzzerio who, along with Vazquez Gomez and Serena Gray, earned firstteam All-ACC honors. She had a successful career at Iowa that featured little team success, and Buzzerio’s teammates say she’s ready to compete for a national title.
“In practice the other day, Courtney was like, ‘Wow, I’ve never practiced this late before.’ She had to remind some of us that she’d never made the tournament,” Nwokolo said with a laugh.
The group isn’t happy with its placement but remains motivated to achieve its ultimate goal regardless.
“We’re glad to be in this position,” Fisher said. “We think we have a team that can make a deep run. We think we have a team that can win a national championship.”