Pitt Volleyball Gets Schedule Right Again

Pitt Panthers volleyball head coach Dan Fisher generally schedules a tough non-conference, doing so yet again for 2024, with a great ACC slate to follow.

Pitt Volleyball Celebrates after a point / Courtesy of Pitt Athletics

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers released their volleyball schedule this week for the upcoming 2024 season, which features a number of opponents in non-conference and the ACC.

Head coach Dan Fisher normally schedules a tough non-conference schedule for his team regardless of the season. This gives his team great opportunites to play top teams in the country earlier in the season, but is also necessary when it comes to NCAA Tournament Selection time.

Pitt volleyball has earned a top four seed in two of the past three NCAA Tournaments, which allows them to host through to the Final Four, giving the team crucial home-court advantage throughout.

Since the ACC schedule doesn't provide enough top, quality opponents for the Panthers, they have to go out and find them in the non-conference and they have done it again in 2024.

Facing off against Oregon on the road in the season opener is an amazing matchup. Oregon made the past two Elite Eights and held off Pitt at Fitzgerald Field House for a big victory in five sets last season.

The most important non-conference matchup is Penn State. The Petersen Events Center will play host to the Keystone Classic on Wednesday, Sept. 18, which might break another progarm record for match attendance.

The return of the rivalry, which is the first matchup between the programs in the regular season since 2019, is great for volleyball as a whole and it should not shock anyone to see this game on ESPN or ESPN2, as it's on a Wednesday night in mid-September.

Pitt also has Long Beach State in Eugene, Ore. and will play USC, Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara in Los Angeles and Malibu, Calif. The other home games for Pitt include Buffalo, East Carolina, Marquette and UMBC.

All of these games come against solid mid-majors and a USC team that Pitt faced last season in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.

Marquette made the Round of 32, while Pepperdine, UCSB and UMBC made the NCAA Tournament as well. Buffalo, LBSU and ECU all had 20 or more wins last season too.

While it's unlikely Pitt will come out of the non-conference undefeated, they'll have great resume boosting wins and a loss/losses that won't hurt them come Selection Sunday.

The ACC schedule also changes heading into this season, with the additions of Cal and Stanford from the Pac-12 and SMU in the American. Each ACC team will now play three teams home-and-away, down from four, and 20 conference games, instead of the previous 18.

Pitt will play rivals Louisville and Georgia Tech home-and-away, which they've done the past three seasons, and SMU will serve as the third and final one as well.

SMU won the American Athletic Conference last season and is a boost for Pitt's RPI compared to them playing Syracuse twice a season, who had the worst RPI of any Power Five team in 2023 (259).

Pitt will host Stanford and Louisville the same week on Sunday, Oct. 20 and then Friday, Oct. 25 at the Petersen Events Center, respectively. Stanford is one of the best programs in the country and has won the most National Titles with nine.

Having both games in a span of five days is almost akin to playing the Elite Eight on the Saturday and then the Final Four the following Thursday, something that this Pitt team is used to with three straight Final Four apperances.

The Panthers also set the program record last season when they hosted the Cardinals at the Petersen Events Center at 8,865, where they reverse swept their rival to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Expect similar or an even greater crowd for this matchup in October.

Pitt will play Louisville on the road on Wednesday, Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving, and then Georgia Tech the final regular season game on Saturday, Nov. 30.

These two matches will likely prove crucial, not only for Pitt attempting to win an ACC Title, but also in securing hosting duties for the NCAA Tournament.

Fisher and his staff did their work to make a great non-conference schedule and the ACC gave them a tough, but important draw for their home-and-away opponents.

The Panthers will look to continue their great run this decade and use their schedule to bolster them into not just their fourth straight Final Four, but their first National Championship too.

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