Pitt Volleyball Maintains No. 1 Ranking

Pitt Panthers volleyball maintains the No. 1 ranking in the AVCA Coaches Poll.

Pitt Volleyball Celebrates Point Against Penn State / Courtesy of Pitt Athletics

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers volleyball team maintained the No. 1 ranking in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll for the third week running.

Pitt received 60 first place votes, missing out on just one. This is a big improvement on their first two No. 1 rankings, when they had 33 first place votes in Week 3 and 29 first place votes after week 2.

They finished 3-0 last week, taking down then ranked No. 3 Penn State in a sweep in front of a program record crowd of 11,800 fans at the Petersen Events Center on Sept. 18.

It is the Panthers' first win at home vs. the Nittany Lions in the regular season 37 years, when they swept them in three sets on Nov. 8, 1987. This is also the second straight win for the Panthers over the Nittany Lions, as they defeated them in four sets in the Second Round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament, en route to their first Final Four.

The win over the Nittany Lions is also the third ranked win of the season for the Panthers, as they also swept the No. 10 Oregon Ducks on Aug. 30 and the No. 23 USC Trojans on Sept. 11.

Pitt would also sweep East Carolina on Sept. 20 and Marquette on Sept. 22, keeping them undefeated on the season.

The Panthers are the only team in Division I that has not dropped a single set and the only team in the AVCA Coaches Poll that is undefeated.

AVCA Coaches Poll

Nebraska moved up to No. 2 in the poll and got the only other first place vote. They swept both then ranked No. 2 Stanford at home on Sept. 18 and No. 4 Louisville on the road on Sept. 22.

Stanford, Penn State and Louisville all dropped one spot to No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5, respecitvely. Creighton jumped up to No. 6 in the poll from No. 9, defeating then ranked No. 6 Purdue in four sets on Sept. 20 and then ranked No. 10 Kansas in a sweep on the road on Sept. 21.

Purdue dropped to No. 10, while Kansas jumped up one spot to No. 9 after defeating Purdue on Sept. 19. Wisconsin and Texas stayed at No. 7 and No. 8, respectively.

Pitt faces a great No. 13 Georgia Tech team in Atlanta on Sept. 29. Georgia Tech has ranked wins against No. 14 BYU on Sept. 7 in five sets on the road and No. 13 Florida on Sept. 11 in a sweep at home.

Three other ACC schools are in the top 25, with Florida State staying at No. 18, SMU dropping one spot to No. 23 and Miami back in at No. 25.

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