Preview: No. 1 Pitt Volleyball Battles No. 3 Louisville

No. 1 Pitt Panthers volleyball battles No. 3 Louisville on road.

Dominic Campbell | 13 Hours Ago

Pitt Volleyball Celebrates a Point / Courtesy of Pitt Athletics

PITTSBURGH -- No. 1 Pitt Panthers volleyball faces off against their bitter rival in the No. 3 Louisville Cardinals on the road in one of the biggest matches of the season.

Pitt Volleyball vs. Louisville Rivalry History

The rivalry between the two schools is one of the best in volleyball, with some of the most important matches in the sport happening in recent history.

Pitt and Louisville have met twice in the regular season for six consecutive seasons and met six times overall in the previous two seasons.

The rivalry is also bolstered by two of the best coaches in the country in the Panthers' Dan Fisher and the Cardinals' Dani Busboom Kelly, who have helped their respective program serve as one of the best in the country.

Pitt holds an 11-8 lead in the series since Louisville joined the ACC in 2014, but the series is tied at 8-8 since Busboom Kelly took over in 2017.

The Panthers have five ACC titles, 2017-19 and 2022-23, and the Cardinals have four ACC titles, 2017 and 2020-22, during that time as well.

Both teams come out victorious at home more often than not in this matchup, with Pitt 13-7 and Louisville 9-4 in the rivalry.

Pitt faced off against Louisville at the Petersen Events Center last season on Nov. 18, 2023 and pulled off a dramatic reverse sweep in front of a then program record 8,865 fans.

The rivalry also extends further past the regular season into the NCAA Tournament, as Pitt and Louisville played each other in these past two postseasons.

They faced off in the 2022 Final Four in Omaha, Neb., with a back-and-forth match that went to five sets. Great serving from the Cardinals saw them dominate in that final set, 15-2, to make the Championship game.

Louisville looked like they would defeat Pitt again this past season in the Elite Eight, going up 2-0. Pitt would have the benefit of a great Fitzgerald Field House crowd and controlled the final three sets, reverse sweeping Louisville again, to make their third straight Final Four.

Pitt and Louisville battled back at the Petersen Events Center on Oct. 25, with the home team taking the five set victory in front of a crowd of 11,309 fans.

The Panthers haven't won in Louisville since a sweep in 2019. They lost in five sets in 2021 and suffered sweeps vs. the Cardinals in both 2022 and 2023.

Pitt Volleyball 2024 Season

Pitt comes into this match 27-1 overall, 17-1 in ACC play, and on a 12 match winning streak. This has kept them at No. 1 in the AVCA Coaches Poll for the past 12 weeks.

They have nine top 25 wins on the season, which includes road sweeps of 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.

Pitt has six home top 25 wins, which includes Louisville and also then ranked No. 3 Penn State on Sept. 18, which set a program record for 11,800 fans at the Petersen Events Center, who saw them sweep their in-state rival.

Other ranked wins came against then ranked No. 15 SMU on Oct. 9, then ranked No. 5 Stanford on Oct. 20, then ranked No. 25 North Carolina on Nov. 8 and then ranked No. 22 Florida State on Nov. 15, all sweeps coming at Fitzgerald Field House.

The only loss the Panthers have suffered this season came in five sets against the Mustangs in Dallas on Oct. 12, just three days after they swept them at home.

Pitt has three semifinalists up for AVCA Division I Player of the Year in sophmores, right side hitter Olivia Babcock and outside hitter Torrey Stafford, and senior setter Rachel Fairbanks.

Babcock has had a sensational season, with two AVCA Division I National Player of the Week honors and three ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors.

She leads the ACC with .71 service aces per set (No. 2 Division I), 4.54 kills per set (No. 16 Division I) and 5.87 points per set (No. 4 Division I). She also ranks tied for No. 8 in the conference with a .338 hitting percentage.

Stafford ranks tied for No. 4 in the ACC with 4.38 points per set and No. 5 in the ACC with 3.77 kills per set. She also has a .375 hitting perecentage, which ranks No. 4 in the ACC, but No. 3 in Division I as a pin-hitter.

Fairbanks is second in the ACC with 10.51 assists per set and No. 32 in Division I. Her play, which has ganered her four ACC Setter of the Week awards, is a large part of why Pitt is hitting .347 as a team, the best mark in Division I.

Pitt also has two excellent middle blockers, redshirt junior Bre Kelley and freshman Ryla Jones who have played a role in Pitt holding the lowest opponent hitting percentage at .115.

Kelley ranks No. 3 in the ACC and No. 6 in Division I with 1.50 blocks per set. She also had a career-high 12 kills and tied a career-high with 10 blocks for a double-double, while hitting .500 in the win over Louisville.

Jones and Babcock both rank tied for No. 9 in the ACC with 1.14 blocks per set, as Pitt ranks No. 3 in the ACC and No. 6 in Division I with 2.93 blocks per set as a team.

Sixth year outside hitter Valeria Vazquez Gomez has served an important role in serve-receive, in attack and on the service line, with her .40 service aces per set ranked No. 7 in the ACC.

The Panthers have two other serving specialists in graduate student outside hitter Cat Flood and freshman libero/defensive specialist Mallorie Meyer, with the team ranking No. 1 in the ACC and No. 6 in the nation with 2.07 aces per set.

Pitt also leads the ACC with 19.08 points per set, .74 opponent aces per set, 9.88 opponent digs per set, 9.32 opponent assists per set and 9.83 opponent kills per set. They rank second in the conference with 13.21 assists per set and 14.08 kills per set.

Louisville 2024 Season So Far/Players to Watch Out For

Louisville is 25-3 overall and 17-1 in the ACC, and on a nine match winning streak, as they currently sit tied with Pitt on top of the ACC standings.

They have eight ranked wins on the season, including five at home against No. 3 Wisconsin in the season opener on Aug. 27 in four sets, No. 9 Creighton on Sept. 15 in five sets and sweeps of No. 15 Tennessee on Sept. 1 and ACC foes in No. 3 Stanford on Sept. 29 and Georgia Tech on Oct. 6.

The Cardinals have three road wins against top 25 opponents, defeating their rival in the then ranked No. 11 Kentucky Wildcats in four sets on Sept. 18, the No. 21 Seminoles in five sets on Oct. 11, and the No. 12 Mustangs on Oct. 27.

Louisville's two losses came against then ranked No. 7 Penn State on the road on Sept. 3 and vs. then ranked No. 5 Nebraska on Sept. 22 at home, both in sweeps.

They don't boast all the statistical feats that Pitt has this season, but Louisville leads the nation with their 3.06 blocks per set as a team the best in the ACC and second best in Division I.

Redshirt junior middle blocker Cara Cresse, Second Team All-ACC in 2023, ranks fourth in the ACC and tied for ninth in the country with 1.48 blocks per set. Fellow middle blockers in graduate student Phekran Kong and sophomore Reese Robins both play important roles in their blocking as well.

The Cardinals also have one of, if not the best, liberos/defensive specialists in the nation in senior Elena Scott.

Scott, who has earned AVCA Second Team All-American honors the past two seasons and received the ACC Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2023, leads the ACC with 4.58 digs per set. She is also incredibly impressive in reception, not just on swings, but in serve-receive too.

Their two most popular players are their outside hitters in graduate student Anna DeBeer and senior Charitie Luper.

DeBeer leads the Cardinals with 3.28 kills per set and 3.84 points per set, while Luper is second with 2.95 kills per set and 3.37 points per set.

Both players possess great verticality and power behind their swings, giving the Panthers much to deal with defensively. DeBeer had 22 kills and Luper had 19 kills in the loss to the Panthers earlier this year.

Scott and DeBeer are both semifinalists for the AVCA Division I Player of the Year as well.

Louisville also added senior outside hitter Sofia Maldonado Diaz from Arizona and she is third on the team with both 2.16 kills per set and 2.57 points per set.

The Cardinals are also running a 6-2 rotation this season with two setters. Senior Elle Glock is still the starter and freshman Nayelis Cabello is the backup.

NCAA Tournament Seeding/ACC Championship Implications

Both Pitt and Louisville, regardless of the match, should come into the NCAA Tournament the following weekend as No. 1 seeds, with the chance to host through to the Final Four.

They will most likely join Nebraska and Penn State out of the Big Ten, as all four teams have had the best seasons out of any four in the country and possess the best RPI.

Pitt will need to defeat Louisville and also No. 19 Georgia Tech on Nov. 30 at home, while also relying on Penn State defeating Nebraska at home on Nov. 29, if they are to secure the top overall spot in the NCAA Tournament. Nebraska has more top RPI wins and will take that No. 1 overall seed if they win out.

The Panthers and Cardinals are 17-1 in the ACC and if both teams end the season with a tied conference record, they'll each feature as ACC Champions.

Louisville travels to No. 6 Stanford on Nov. 30 and must win that one to claim outright, if they defeat Pitt at home. Pitt could also lose to Louisville and still share the ACC Title if they defeat Georgia Tech and Louisville loses to Stanford.

How to Watch: No. 1 Pitt Volleyball vs. No. 3 Louisville

Pitt and Louisville will start at 7:00 p.m. on the ACC Network. There was no television broadcast for the previous meeting, with volleyball fans across the country now able to watch this fierce rivalry for the first time in 2024.

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Published 13 Hours Ago