Photo by Matt Plizga, courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh
Pitt's women's volleyball team celecrating a win
The University of Pittsburgh women's volleyball team has, without much fanfare, become one of the best sports teams in town, and a legitimate NCAA championship contender. In fact, the Panthers, who have made it to eight straight NCAA tournaments, three straight Elite Eights and back-to-back-to-back Final Fours, are ready to face their biggest championship hurdle yet. On Thursday night, in Tampa, Pitt took on the No. 1 team in the country, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, in a bid to advance to the National Championship match. Though they lost, it doesn't diminish the impressive journey that led them there.
It’s been a long road for the team that started 10 years ago when coach Dan Fisher took over the program. “There’s this feeling as a coach, where, you know not every year is going to get better,” Fisher said Thursday morning. “But the last three years, to make it here three years in a row, every year, we have gotten better.”
While the Panthers volleyball may seem like an under-the-radar powerhouse in college sports, most attention tends to go to football and basketball programs. Fisher said that the Pitt student body has more recently taken notice.
Earlier this season, the squad set an all-time attendance record, defeating the University of Louisville at the Petersen Events Center in front of 8,865 people. “The last five years or so, we’ve had a really nice fan base,” Fisher said. “It’s very loyal. We always have a couple thousand fans a game. They know the players and know the game.”
Pitt sophomore Matthew Scabilloni, who is the volleyball beat reporter for the University of Pittsburgh’s student newspaper, the Pitt News, agrees. “The more they won, the more people came,” Scabilloni said about the fans on campus. “For the playoff games, the student tickets sold out in like 15 minutes.” And while the team has definitively won over the hearts of the Pitt students, Fisher said he’s noticing more off-campus fans taking notice. “Maybe the rest of Pittsburgh kind of had an awareness, the casual sports fan might have been like, ‘hey, Pitt has a good volleyball team,’ but I feel like this is the first time that, maybe, we’re kind of capturing that average sports fan, they are actually coming to games and following us more closely. It definitely feels like we’re a little more mainstream right now.”
It’s a reputation that’s well deserved. The team is led by graduate students Chiamaka Nwokolo and Emma Monks, who were recently both drafted in the new Pro Volleyball Federation (Nwokolo was drafted No. 6 overall by the Atlanta Vibe, while Monks was taken No. 29 by the Columbus Fury). The squad has also gotten stellar play from freshman outside hitter Olivia Babcock, who was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s Freshman of the Year — the first Panther to ever win the award.
The Panthers started their tournament this year with wins over Coppin State, the University of Southern California and Washington State, dropping just one set to USC in the three match victories. The team’s toughest match came against Louisville, the team they beat earlier this season to set a new attendance record. The Panthers lost the first two sets of the match, staving off elimination to win the next three in a row and complete a reverse sweep to win and advance to the Final Four.
Prior to last Thursday's game, Fisher knew Nebraska was going to be a tough draw. “I kind of have a tendency to look defensively, and both teams play very good defense,” Fisher said. “Offensively, I think our members are a little bit ahead, but it’s quite close. I think it’s probably going to come down to us staying aggressive. It’s going to come down to which team can do the better job of making the other team uncomfortable. I have a tendency to think whichever team plays better defensively is going to win it.”
It would be easy to say "netter luck next year, Panthers," but if the team's trajectory continues as is, they might not need it.
While the Panthers volleyball may seem like an under-the-radar powerhouse in college sports, most attention tends to go to football and basketball programs. Fisher said that the Pitt student body has more recently taken notice.
Earlier this season, the squad set an all-time attendance record, defeating the University of Louisville at the Petersen Events Center in front of 8,865 people. “The last five years or so, we’ve had a really nice fan base,” Fisher said. “It’s very loyal. We always have a couple thousand fans a game. They know the players and know the game.”
Pitt sophomore Matthew Scabilloni, who is the volleyball beat reporter for the University of Pittsburgh’s student newspaper, the Pitt News, agrees. “The more they won, the more people came,” Scabilloni said about the fans on campus. “For the playoff games, the student tickets sold out in like 15 minutes.” And while the team has definitively won over the hearts of the Pitt students, Fisher said he’s noticing more off-campus fans taking notice. “Maybe the rest of Pittsburgh kind of had an awareness, the casual sports fan might have been like, ‘hey, Pitt has a good volleyball team,’ but I feel like this is the first time that, maybe, we’re kind of capturing that average sports fan, they are actually coming to games and following us more closely. It definitely feels like we’re a little more mainstream right now.”
It’s a reputation that’s well deserved. The team is led by graduate students Chiamaka Nwokolo and Emma Monks, who were recently both drafted in the new Pro Volleyball Federation (Nwokolo was drafted No. 6 overall by the Atlanta Vibe, while Monks was taken No. 29 by the Columbus Fury). The squad has also gotten stellar play from freshman outside hitter Olivia Babcock, who was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s Freshman of the Year — the first Panther to ever win the award.
The Panthers started their tournament this year with wins over Coppin State, the University of Southern California and Washington State, dropping just one set to USC in the three match victories. The team’s toughest match came against Louisville, the team they beat earlier this season to set a new attendance record. The Panthers lost the first two sets of the match, staving off elimination to win the next three in a row and complete a reverse sweep to win and advance to the Final Four.
Prior to last Thursday's game, Fisher knew Nebraska was going to be a tough draw. “I kind of have a tendency to look defensively, and both teams play very good defense,” Fisher said. “Offensively, I think our members are a little bit ahead, but it’s quite close. I think it’s probably going to come down to us staying aggressive. It’s going to come down to which team can do the better job of making the other team uncomfortable. I have a tendency to think whichever team plays better defensively is going to win it.”
It would be easy to say "netter luck next year, Panthers," but if the team's trajectory continues as is, they might not need it.
