Weekend sports recap | Volleyball dominates, swim and dive falls to Notre Dame in a busy weekend for Pitt athletics

This weekend was largely successful for the Panthers. The Panthers gave a team their first home loss of the season, were feisty against a top 10 team and broke some school records.

Volleyball

Pitt volleyball had a tough test this weekend against NC State, who had yet to lose a game at home this season before the Panthers came to town. The Panthers ruined the Wolfpack’s perfection at home via a sweep.

Head coach Dan Fisher knew coming into the game that the Wolfpack were no easy test and needed the Panthers defense to step up. 

“They are an aggressive team offensively, they take big swings,” Fisher said. “Our block needs to be well formed.”

The Panthers defense played up to the task and the block was definitely well formed with 14 blocks. With the domination from the blocks, the Panthers also had 46 digs and held the Wolfpack to a -0.038 hitting percentage, the lowest they have hit all season.  

Alongside the stifling Panthers defense, the first-years shined once more, with outside hitter Torrey Stafford adding eight kills and right-side hitter Olivia Bacock tallying 13 kills. 

Fisher has relied on Babcock and Stafford all season long, and they’ve performed no matter what difficulties they faced. Fisher believed before the game that the younger Panthers were well prepared for stepping into this hostile environment.

“At this point for our newer players on the team, they have done it all,” Fisher said. “They have been in big crowds, they have been a part of big comeback wins, they have worked through adversity.”

After this statement sweep, the Panthers are back at home this weekend as they face Virginia Tech on Friday night and Wake Forest on Sunday afternoon in the Fitzgerald Field House.

Men’s Soccer

The Panthers had no easy task on Saturday night at Ambrose Urbanic Field as they faced No. 9 Duke. But Pitt still handled the hard task, forcing a 0-0 draw against the Blue Devils on senior night.

The Blue Devils — tied for 19th in the nation in goals scored — struggled to find the goal against the Panthers, as sophomore goalie Cabral Carter saved all six of the Blue Devils shots on goal. 

The Panthers — tied for 26th in the nation in goals scored — also struggled to find the goal on their three shots on net as Blue Devils first-year goalie Julian Eyestone saved all of them. 

The Panthers best opportunity for finding the back of the net on Saturday night came during the 61st minute as junior forward Luis Sahmkow and sophomore forward Eben McIntyre both had shots on goal after a feed from junior forward Abdoulaye Toure. 

For Duke, its best opportunity to end the scoreless draw came in the 85th minute as first-year forward Bull Jorgensen intercepted a Panthers pass from Carter. But Carter would make up for this costly mistake with a huge save keeping the score at 0-0. 

The Panthers have a chance to make a statement on Friday, when they’ll head to South Bend for their final match of the regular season against No. 3 Notre Dame.

Swim and Dive

The Panthers had an up-and-down weekend in South Bend, with both men’s and women’s beating in-state rival Penn State on Friday. Both then lost to conference rival Notre Dame on Saturday. 

The win over Penn State for the women’s team — a 199-154 victory — marks the first victory for women’s swim over Penn State since 1989.

The men’s team followed this up with a dominant 256-97 victory of their own.

The Panther victories over Penn State came in large part to their dominance during relays, winning all four of them. The Panthers set school records in the 400 Medley Relay and 400 Free Relay. 

On Saturday, the men’s team narrowly lost to Notre Dame, 177.7-175.5. Meanwhile, the women’s team suffered a 194-159 loss. 

But the Panthers dominance still showed in the relays. The 400 Free Relay team consisting of first-year Avery Kudlac, senior Sophie Yendell, first-year Sydney Gring and sophomore Claire Jansen broke yet another school record.

The Panthers return to action in two weeks on Nov. 3 to 4 in Trees Pool against George Washington.