Volleyball: Panthers overcome slow start against Georgetown, but fall to Villanova

It was the focus all week during practice, and blocking proved to be the difference in the Pitt volleyball team’s win last Friday night.

In the victory over Georgetown at the Fitzgerald Field House, the Panthers (12-10, 3-5 Big East) recorded a season-high 13 blocks — led by junior outside hitter Monica Wignot’s eight. Sophomore hitter Kate Yeazel chipped in with five blocks.

“Blocking has been emphasized in practice since the beginning of the season,” Wignot said. “We were able to execute it well against Georgetown.”

Head coach Toby Rens agreed, acknowledging the play of both Wignot and Yeazel in the Georgetown match.

“We did some great things defensively and had some big plays blocking,” Rens said. “Kate and Monica did a particularly good job at the net with their blocking.”

Despite the Panthers’ success against the Hoyas, they fell to the Villanova Wildcats Sunday in a 3-1 loss, splitting their crucial weekend home series.

Pitt 3, Georgetown 1

Wignot led the way for the Panthers both in terms of blocks and kills as Pitt defeated Georgetown (6-13, 0-6 Big East) in four sets with scores of 20-25, 25-20, 25-18 and 25-20.

In the match, Wignot had a team-best 11 kills and a career-best eight blocks. With her performance, Wignot tallied double-digit kill figures for the third consecutive match, but she attributed the win to a team effort.

“We were very in sync today,” Wignot said. “We played together as a team rather than six individuals on the court.”

The Panthers dropped the first set, but Pitt regained momentum and took the second with the help of senior Alexa Campbell’s four kills.For Rens, the Panthers were able to put the opening set loss behind them as they fought to earn the second set win.

“I felt that we came out flat in the first set and that Georgetown was prepared for us,” Rens said. “I was pleased with the changes that we made in the following sets, as we did what we needed to do down the stretch to get the win.”

In the third set, freshman Amanda Orchard had all four of her match kills as the Panthers earned their largest set victory of the contest.

Then Wignot’s four blocks paired with four kills by sophomores Jessica Wynn and Mechael Guess sealed the Pitt match victory in the fourth set.

Defensively, senior libero Margy Acton recorded a team-high 18 digs, while sophomore setter Lindsey Zitzke completed a double-double performance with 11 digs and 30 assists.

Villanova 3, Pitt 1

The Panthers failed to carry over their success from the Georgetown match and fell to Big East opponent Villanova (10-11, 4-3) two days later after set scores of 25-15, 22-25, 20-25 and 23-25.

Pitt dominated the first set, recording 15 kills to Villanova’s eight. After battling to a 4-4 tie, the Panthers led for the remainder of the set, eventually winning 25-15. Campbell led the Panthers with four kills in the set.

In the second set, the Wildcats jumped out to an early 6-1 lead, but the Panthers managed to bring the score to a 21-21 tie. However, two errors by Pitt and two Villanova kills gave the Wildcats the set win.

The third set saw a similar pattern of early ties and lead changes, with the latest tie coming at the 11-11 mark. After that point, the Wildcats held on to the lead for the rest of the set and gained a 2-1 match advantage.

In the final set of the match, Pitt held the lead from the 8-8 point. But Villanova kept the match close and tied the score at 22 before they scored three of the final four points to take the match victory in a hard-fought contest.

Campbell led the Panthers with her 11 kills, while Guess, Wynn and Yeazel each contributed 10. According to Yeazel, the difference in the match was Pitt’s inability to retain the focus that it had in its opening set win.

“We played really well in the first set and executed our game plan,” Yeazel said. “We let up in the rest of the match and couldn’t mentally shift back to the focus we seemed to have early on.”

The Panthers will return to action at the Fitzgerald Field House on Friday as they face conference opponent St. John’s.