Pitt Volleyball to Host Rival Penn State

The Pitt Panthers will host their rival Penn State this upcoming volleyball season, reigniting a great in-state battle.

Dominic Campbell | Jun 5, 2024

Pitt Volleyball Celebrates a well deserved point / Courtesy of Pitt Athletics

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers will host their in-state rivals, the Penn State Nittany Lions, in volleyball, reigniting a rivalry that fans will greatly anticipate this fall.

Pitt will take on Penn State on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at the Petersen Events Center, which will serve as one of two games at the venue for the program this season, along with rival Louisville on Friday, Oct. 25.

Pitt Volleyball vs. Penn State Rivalry Background

The two programs have faced off against each other 55 times, which is the second most Pitt has played a team, with rival Syracuse first at 59 games. Penn State holds the all-time series lead, 34-21.

Most of these meetings came prior to 1991, with only nine matches between the two since then, with three of them coming in the NCAA Tournament.

Panthers head coach Dan Fisher arrived in the program in 2013 and started to build it into a respectable outfit in the middle of the 2010s.

His first two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2016 and 2017, they had to play Penn State in the Second Round on the road, losing both times in four sets.

Pitt and Penn State played a home-and-away over a weekend in September 2019, the last time the two played in the regular season. Pitt stunned Penn State by sweeping them on the road, their first win at Rec Hall since 1980 and just their second sweep there. Penn State got revenge in front of a program record crowd at the time at the Petersen Events Center, winning in five sets just two days later.

The two programs last met in the NCAA Tournament Second Round in 2021 at the Petersen Events Center, where Pitt would win in four sets, en route to their first Final Four appearance.

That 2021 meeting was the last between Fisher and legendary Nittany Lions head coach Russ Rose, who served at the helm of the program for 43 seasons, winning seven National Titles, including four straight from 2007-10 and back-to-back in 2013/2014.

Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who played on the first Penn State National Championship team in 1999, took over the program in 2022 and has gotten the team to make back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances.

The two teams played each other twice in the spring season, at Fitzgerald Field House and then at Rec Hall. Pitt won the first match in four sets, but would lose the away match in five sets.

Importance of the return of the Keystone Rivalry

With any sport these two rivals both play in, there is general excitement around any game or match against them. Outside of the nonsense surrounding the football series, other games featuring Pitt and Penn State have great fanfare and moments that make any rivalry great.

The men's soccer teams opened their seasons in 2023 at Ambrose Urbanic Field, which ended in a 1-1 draw, multiple yellow cards, a player for Pitt sent off and a crowd filled to capacity with students and families alike.

Fisher wanted to make sure that the two teams played each other when he spoke on the rivalry back during spring practice and he gets that with the match this September.

With Pitt hosting this year, it's likely that Penn State will host next year, as both programs play at home every other year.

The game is also on a Wednesday night, which gives the match a good chance for ESPN to broadcast it to a National audience, as the sport of volleyball continues to grow.

It is also another chance for Pitt to have a huge crowd at the Petersen Events Center, as they set the program record last season in a reverse sweep of Louisville in front of 8,865 people.

The fans of both programs will appreciate the return of the rivalry, and neutral fans as well, with Pitt and Penn State serving as two of the best teams in the country going into this season.

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Published Jun 5, 2024

DOMINIC CAMPBELL

Follow Dominic Campbell on Twitter.