No. 7 Pitt (15-2, ACC 6-0) didn’t budge against Clemson (11-7, ACC 2-4), sweeping the Tigers and continuing their undefeated season in ACC play — winning their ninth straight game.
The Panthers’ younger players began the first set aggressively. Ten of the Panthers’ first 13 attacks came from the first-years. First-year outside hitter Torrey Stafford took advantage with her getting two kills on her first six times attacked.
Stafford especially enjoys the amount of action she gets early into games.
“I’m the type of player that likes to get going quickly,” Stafford said. “It gets me going for the rest of the match.”
The Tigers came out strong with senior outside hitter Kateryna Tkachenko starting the game with four kills. This helped the Tigers get out to an early 9-7 lead.
Following the hot start by Tkachenko and the Tigers, Panthers’ first-year right-side hitter Olivia Babcock helped the Panthers dig into the early Tigers lead. Babcock contributed four kills and one block after the 9-7 Clemson lead and helped the Panthers gain the 15-13 lead at the media timeout.
Straight off the timeout, Babcock returned to what she did throughout the Georgia Tech game, dominating at the service line and adding an ace to her stacked first set. Stafford followed this up with a kill of her own forcing Clemson to call their first timeout of the set with the Panthers taking the 17-14 lead.
Off of Clemson’s timeout, the Tigers began to claw back, making it a one point game at 18-17. But the Panthers offense turned it on with two straight kills causing Clemson head coach Jackie Simpson Kirr to burn her final timeout with the score of 20-17.
In the waning moments of the first set, Pitt head coach Dan Fisher made a similar move to what he did in the Georgia Tech game, substituting graduate student defensive specialist Logan Mosley in for senior outside hitter Valeria Vazquez Gomez. The move worked again for Fisher, and the Panthers ultimately won the set 25-20.
In the second set, the Tigers and Panthers began by going back-and-forth. Both teams did everything they could offensively, the Panthers hit 0.375 while the Tigers hit 0.400. This gave the Tigers the 15-14 advantage into the media timeout.
Off of the media timeout, the Tigers called a quick timeout after the Panthers knotted it up at 17-17. This timeout worked for the Tigers as they scored the next two points leading to a Pitt timeout with Clemson leading 19-17.
The Panthers then scored the first two points off of the timeout, which led to a tie ball game again, this time at 19-19. Two consecutive service errors occurred after this, leading to senior outside hitter and serving specialist Cat Flood stepping into the service line. Flood aced her first serve leading to a Clemson timeout with the Panthers taking a one point advantage 21-20.
Flood prides herself in her ability to come in and make a difference from the service line even if she makes a few mistakes.
“I know I am good at serving, it is something that I pride myself in,” Flood said. “So I am confident about it even if I do make a couple of mistakes.”
With Flood giving the Panthers the one point advantage with the ace, the Panthers took over the rest of the set with her at the service line. This ultimately led to a 25-21 victory, giving the Panthers a two sets to zero advantage.
Fisher was frustrated that the Panthers allowed the Tigers to hit 0.324 in the second set, but he was proud of how his team finished the set.
“We weren’t putting our best effort in defensively,” Fisher said. “But at the end of the sets when it really mattered, we played harder defensively.”
In the third set, the Panthers did not start hot, they began the set without a hit and committed multiple errors and dealt with the stifling defense of Clemson, which led to a Pitt timeout with a 9-7 Clemson lead.
The Panthers came out the timeout by steadily clawing back into the Tigers lead and shutting down the Tigers offense. The Panthers stifling defense included multiple digs from the Panthers back row and four Panthers blocks from the front row. All leading to a Clemson timeout with the Panthers now having a 19-16 advantage.
Off of the timeout the teams continued to go back-and-forth, causing another Clemson timeout. But that didn’t work for the Tigers as the teams exchanging points, ending the set with a 25-22 Panthers victory and sweep.
One of the key components of the Panthers victory over the pesky Tigers — the phenomenal setting by junior setter Rachel Fairbanks as she finished the game with 13.67 assists per set, her highest mark of the 2023 campaign.
After the game Fisher — happy to see that his team is doing what he wants them to do and looked forward to what is to come in the next few weeks.
“You want to win every game,” Fisher said. “The next two weeks we have a quick turnaround, playing on a Wednesday then on a Friday, I think it’s going to be a great test for us.”
Next, the Panthers travel to No. 6 Louisville (14-2, ACC 5-1) this Friday for a highly anticipated matchup between two of the top teams in the ACC and the Nation.