Preview: Pitt Volleyball Battles No. 15 SMU Twice

No. 1 Pitt Panthers volleyball battles No. 15 SMU twice, home-and-away, this week.

No. 1 Pitt Volleyball Celebrates a Point in their win vs. No. 23 USC in Los Angeles / Courtesy of Pitt Athletics

PITTSBURGH -- No. 1 Pitt Panthers volleyball has faced some of the top teams in the country so far and will face off against ACC newcomer No. 15 SMU twice in a span of four days.

Pitt Volleyball vs. SMU Background

The Panthers host the Mustangs at 7:00 p.m. on Oct. 9 at Fitzgerald Field House, with ACC Network broadcasting the match. They will also travel to Dallas to face off against them on Oct. 12 at 2:00 p.m.

Pitt and SMU are travel partners, which means that they face the same ACC teams each weekend. Travel partners in the ACC also play each other on Wednesday and Saturday, with Florida State and Miami plus North Carolina and Duke also doing so the first and second week of ACC play, respectively.

They each traveled to Clemson and Georgia Tech the first weekend and then Boston College and Syracuse last weekend, which each team alternating on different days which opponent they faced.

SMU, along with Stanford and Cal, joined the ACC ahead of this season. SMU joined from the American Athletic Conference, while both Stanford and Cal joined from the Pac-12, which is no longer a true volleyball conference, with only Oregon State and Washington State remaining.

The additions of these three teams meant that the ACC increased the conference schedule from 18 matches to 20 matches.

They also cut down the home-and-away opponents from four to three. Pitt has SMU, plus rivals in Louisville and Georgia Tech as their home-and-away opponents this season.

Pitt and SMU have never played each other before in volleyball, with these two matches serving as the first matches in both Pittsburgh and Dallas.

Pitt Volleyball Review

Pitt is 14-0, No. 1 in the country, and one of two undefeated teams left in Division I, along with South Dakota State.

They've held the No. 1 ranking, their first in program history, for five weeks now, and have four ranked victories, including three on the road against then ranked No. 10 Oregon in the season opener on Aug. 30, then ranked No. 23 USC on Sept. 11 and then ranked No. 13 Georgia Tech on Sept. 29, all sweeps.

The biggest win of the season for Pitt came against Penn State in the Keystone Classic, taking down the No. 3 team on Sept. 18 in front of a program record crowd at the Petersen Events Center of 11,800 fans.

Pitt swept their first 12 opponents, before dropping the first set against Boston College on Oct. 4, ending a streak of 36 consecutive set victories. They did take the next three sets against them and swept Syracuse on Oct. 6, making it just one dropped set on the season.

Sophomores in right side hitter Olivia Babcock and outside hitter Torrey Stafford rank first and second in the ACC with points per set, 5.73 and 4.97, respectively, and second and first in kills per set, 4.25 and 4.38, respectively.

Stafford is hitting an incredible .425, which ranks tied for No. 16 in the country and No. 3 in the ACC, but No. 2 amongst all pin-hitters in Division I.

Babcock also ranks No. 3 in the country for her points per set and No. 2 in the country for .82 aces per set. She had a triple-double in the win vs. Boston College, making 14 kills, 10 digs and a program record 12 service aces.

Senior setter Rachel Fairbanks leads the ACC with 10.66 assists per set, tied for No. 15 in Division I, and her setting is leading Pitt to a .351 hitting percentage, best in the country.

Pitt also ranks No. 3 in the ACC and No. 21 in Division I with 2.72 blocks per set. Middle blockers in redshirt junior Bre Kelley and freshman Ryla Jones rank No. 5 and No. 10 in the ACC with 1.32/1.18 blocks per set, respectively. Babcock is also No. 8 in the conference with 1.20 blocks per set.

The Panthers rank No. 1 in the country with. a .099 opponent hitting percentage, holding half of their opponents below .100 hitting. They also rank No. 4 in the country with 2.33 aces per set, thanks to Babcock, sixth year outside hitter Valeria Vazquez Gomez, graduate student outside hitter Cat Flood and Fairbanks.

Pitt also leads the ACC with 19.21 points per set, .63 opponent aces per set, 9.16 opponent digs per set and 9.47 opponent kills per set.

No one in the country is playing as well as Pitt right now and if they keep it up, they'll have a great chance to make their fourth straight Final Four.

SMU Volleyball Preview

SMU is having their best season to date, as they broke into the AVCA Coaches Poll for the first time in program history and are in their third week ranked.

They won the AAC last season finishing 26-7 overall and 18-1 in conference play. They also made it to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament, sweeping Texas State before losing in a sweep to eventual the National Champions, Texas.

Sam Erger is in her third season as head coach of the Mustangs, with an overall record of 61-20 (.753) and a conference record of 37-6 (.860). She has used the transfer portal to her benefit, building a strong and veteran led team.

SMU is 12-3 this season with three ranked victories, which includes road sweeps of then ranked No. 18 Baylor on Sept. 10 and then ranked No. 13 Georgia Tech on Sept. 27 in their first ever ACC match.

Their most important win of the season came against No. 2 Nebraska at home on Sept. 3 in a sweep, with a program record 6,773 fans in the Moody Coliseum watching them take down the 2023 runner-up.

That loss for the Cornhuskers is their only one of the season, which has allowed the Panthers to hold on to their No. 1 ranking for the past five weeks.

SMU also has three losses on the season, in five sets to both Hawaii in the season opener on the road on Aug. 30 and at home to LMU on Sept. 7. They also suffered a sweep to then ranked No. 10 Kentucky at home on Sept. 13.

Like Pitt, SMU is a team that hits well and stops their opponent from doing the same. They rank No. 2 in the ACC and tied for No. 11 in Division I with a .293 hitting percentage and No. 4 in the ACC and tied for No. 17 in Division I with a .148 opponent hitting percentage.

Graduate student setter Celia Cullen is a large part of that Mustangs attack, ranking No. 3 in the ACC with 9.98 assists per set. She spent her first two seasons at Michigan State and won the 2023 AAC Setter of the Year Award.

Fellow graduate student in opposite hitter Naya Shime spent her first three years with Wyoming and is 10th in the ACC with 3.52 kills per set. She also leads SMU with 4.11 points per set and ranks third with both a .309 hitting percentage and 1.00 blocks per set.

Graduate student middle blocker Natalie Foster came from Wichita State and is having a solid season.

She is one of the best servers in the country, averaging .65 aces per set, No. 2 in the ACC and tied for No. 8 in Division I. Foster also leads the team with her .406 hitting percentage and is second with 1.06 blocks per set.

Senior outside hitter Jamison Wheeler is in her fourth season with SMU and was a 2023 All-AAC First Team honoree. She is second on SMU with 2.32 digs per set and third with both 2.94 points per set and 2.66 kills per set.

Three more graduate student transfers for SMU that have played an important role, include outside hitter Maya Tabron from Colorado, middle blocker Nnedi Okammor from Florida and libero/defensive specialist Ellie Bolton from Creighton.

Tabron has .40 aces per set, tied for No. 8 in the ACC, second best on the Mustangs with both 4.07 points per set and 3.25 kills per set and third best with 2.25 digs per set.

Okammor leads SMU with 1.17 blocks per set and is second with a .325 hitting percentage, while Bolton is first with 2.35 digs per set.

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