Pitt Volleyball Shares Storied Rivalry with Louisville

Pitt Panthers volleyball shares a storied rivalry with Louisville.

Dominic Campbell | Dec 19, 2024

Pitt Volleyball Celebrates Scoring Point in Win vs. Louisville / Courtesy of Pitt Athletic

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The Pitt Panthers have many great rivalries across their many sport programs, but the volleyball rivalry they have with Louisville also has a storied history and serves as one if, if not the, best in the sport.

The two teams played five times from 1981-84, with Pitt winning three of those matchups. They also played twice in the early 1990s, with both teams splitting the matches.

Pitt and Louisville faced off more regularly starting in the 2000s, as Louisville joined the Big East. They would play each other 11 teams in the conference, with Louisville absolutely dominating, winning nine of the meetings, with Pitt winning in five sets at home in 2009 and in four sets on the road in 2011.

The two teams would eventually shift over to the ACC, with Pitt joining in 2013 and Louisville coming in 2014.

Pitt hired Dan Fisher as head coach in 2013 and he improved the program in all areas, but also in the series as he won three of his first four games against Lousiville.

The Cardinals then hired Dani Busboom Kelly as their head coach in 2017, which helped spur the series into a true rivalry. She led her team to a five-set win over the Panthers at home and also won a share of the ACC Title in her first season.

Fisher and Pitt would win four straight matches in the rivalry over the next three seasons, which included three wins at home and one sweep on the road in 2019.

The rivalry started growing in 2019, as both teams started playing a home-and-away with each other, which they've done for six seasons now.

Louisville then came back and won the second match of 2020 and would start their own success in the rivalry, with six wins out of seven matches from Oct. 25, 2020 to Oct. 13, 2023.

This coincided with both teams breaking through in the NCAA Tournament, as Louisville made the Elite Eight for the first time in 2019 and Pitt did the same in 2020.

The Cardinals won both matchups in 2021, which saw them ranked as No. 2 in the first matchup, a five-set win over the No. 4 Panthers on Oct. 24, and then as No. 1 in the second matchup, a victory in four sets over the No. 3 Panthers on Nov. 21 at a sold out Fitzgerald Field House.

Both teams would earn top four seeds in the NCAA Tournament and made the Final Four for the first time in program history. Pitt fell to Nebraska in four sets and Louisville fell in five sets to eventual National Champions in Wisconsin.

Pitt would get a win back in 2022, at a sold-out Fitzgerald Field house on Oct. 23, as they took down No. 2 Louisville in five sets, preventing a reverse sweep attempt.

Louisville then swept Pitt on the road later on that season, but both teams would share the ACC Title.

The Panthers would upset the Badgers in five sets on the road in the Elite Eight and the Cardinals defeated the Oregon Ducks, also in five sets in the same round, setting up a meeting in the Final Four, the first NCAA Tournament match in the rivalry.

Louisville and Pitt each took a set to start out, but then Pitt would allow a 5-0 run while leading 22-20, giving Louisville a 2-1 lead. Louisville then ended up doing the same, blowing a 16-10 lead and a 22-20 lead, as Pitt won the fourth set on a 5-0 run.

The fifth set lives in infamy for Pitt fans, as Louisville outside hitter Anna DeBeer led her team to an 8-0 start and they would eventually go on to win it 15-2 and make the National Championship match, losing to Texas.

Louisville won the first match in 2023 at home at the KFC Yum! Center, as DeBeer led the way with 15 kills and hit .448, as they hit .338 as a team.

The Cardinals then came to Pittsburgh to face the Panthers in the Petersen Events Center, the first meeting between the two schools in the basketball arena.

Louisville took the first set, 25-19, but then came back in the second set, fighting off three set points for a 5-0 run to win it 26-24 and looked for another sweep.

The Panthers battled back, winning 26-24 in the third set and then holding off the Cardinals in the fourth set, 25-21.

Both teams played an incredibly competitive fifth set, wiht Louisville taking a 10-6 lead, but then Pitt battling back to tie it. Each team would trade points, but three attack errors from Louisville, including two from DeBeer gave Pitt a huge reverse sweep victory.

That win gave them their second straight season with a share of the ACC Title and also a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, allowing them to host through to the Final Four.

Outside hitter Torrey Stafford set a career-high with 21 kills and hit .439, while setter Rachel Fairbanks made a career-high 58 assists in the win.

Pitt and Louisville met in the Elite Eight at a sold out Fitzgerald Field House, as Louisville was the No. 2 seed in Pitt's quadrant of the bracket.

The Cardinals would again take a two-set lead and looked like they would end the Panthers' season again in the NCAA Tournament.

Pitt then played the best they did all season, dominating Louisville the rest of the way, with a 25-16 win in the third set, 25-19 win in the fourth set and then a 15-7 win in the fifth set, for a second reverse sweep.

Stafford starred again with 18 kills and hit .378, Fairbanks made 48 assists and right side Olivia Babcock added 16 kills herself.

Babcock would go on a big service run in the fourth set and serving specialist Cat Flood would do the same in the fifth set herself, as Pitt made their third straight Final Four.

The Panthers and Cardinals faced off this season for the first time at the Petersen Events Center on Oct. 25.

Pitt took the first set, but fell behind early in the second set and faced a 19-13 deficit. Head coach Dan Fisher reverted to a 6-2 rotation, putting Nisa Bulzetepe in for Fairbanks at setter and Blaire Bayless for Babcock at right side.

This move put Pitt on a 11-4 run for set point, but Louisville would go on to win the second set, 28-26.

The Panthers then dominated in the third set, 25-17, but the Cardinals responded with a 25-22 victory in the fourth set to send it to five sets.

Pitt, who struggled in serve-receive all match, took advantage of Louisville making three service errors in the set and earned a 13-9 lead. Louisville would score three straight points, but, Pitt held on for the 15-13 set win on a Bayless kill and a net violation on Louisville.

Middle blocker Bre Kelley excelled in this matchup, with a career-high 12 kills and added 10 blocks for a double-double.

The Panthers then traveled to face the Cardinals at the KFC Yum! Center on Nov. 27, with both the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and the outright ACC title on the line.

Pitt held off Louisville for the first set, 25-23, but Louisville easily won the second set, 25-18, to tie it up.

The Panthers jumped out to an early 14-6 lead, with outside hitter Valeria Vazquez Gomez on the service line, and held off the Cardinals later on, 25-20, to take a 2-1 lead.

Fairbanks then led the Panthers on a 5-0 service run in the fourth set with two aces, building a 17-8 lead, en route to a 25-16 set win and the match victory.

Both teams now face each other in the Final Four, marking the third straight meeting in the NCAA Tournament and the ninth matchup the past three seasons.

This meeting will also take place at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky., giving the Cardinals a defacto home match.

While fans know the rivalry for the great play from both teams and the smack talk the players engage in, both programs benefit playing each other as much as they do, providing an incredible match for the sport and for the players improvement in their own performances.

Fisher has great respect for Louisville and that playing them makes his team better and shows where they need to improve.

"From my end, it's nothing but respect," Fisher said on Louisville. "I do agree that playing against great teams makes you better and exposes you for stuff you don't see in your own practice gym or when you're playing a weaker opponent.

"Even though we've won both games, there's been things we've learned from those that really they made us uncomfortable in certain areas. So I think -- look, the rivalry is probably a little bit more for the fans, but the competition has definitely made us both better."

Busboom Kelly shared a similar sentiment with Fisher and that the growth of the programs sparked the growth of the rivalry.

"The same it always has been," Busboom Kelly said on Pitt. "Very appreciative that we have each other because I'm not sure one of us could have done it without the other. And the rise of the ACC has also really helped and allowed us to get bigger and more physical athletes.

"But the one thing, thinking about our rivalry, that I find interesting, and I don't think people think about, is when we started the rise, both Pitt and us had to have a little extra something. Neither one of us had top 10 recruits. We needed that extra edge.

"I think it's rare that both of us have been able to keep that while also getting top recruits. So I think it's what's made our programs really special is now we're getting top recruits, but we're also playing with that same edge, and I would say swag, that we were before."

Pitt will look to defeat Louisville for a fifth straight time, marking the longest win streak in the series for them, and to make their first ever National Championship match.

Louisville will try to end the losing streak, make their second National Championship match in three seasons and win a National Title in front of their home fans.

First serve is set for 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 19, with ESPN broadcasting the match.

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Published Dec 19, 2024

DOMINIC CAMPBELL

Follow Dominic Campbell on Twitter.