Pitt volleyball on another level

No. 1 Pitt volleyball is unstoppable. The team has all of the pieces to win a national championship, and its dominance was even more obvious this weekend.

Pitt swept Clemson (25-21, 25-15, 25-13) and No. 13 Georgia Tech (25-11, 25-17, 25-8) with relative ease. The only set all weekend that was ever in doubt for Pitt was the first set of the weekend, but besides that, nothing challenged the Panthers. 

Sophomore studs

I don’t know how teams are going to stop outside hitter Torrey Stafford and opposite hitter Olivia Babcock in one match. I don’t think they are possible to game-plan for.

If they focus the block on one of the two, the other is going to make the opposition pay. They could make both of them a one-on-one matchup, but the problem with that is they win practically every one-on-one. It feels unfair.

Combining the two special talents with senior setter Rachel Fairbanks who can set either on any given pass? Good luck.

The sophomore duo was in full effect this weekend. Stafford finished her weekend with 21 kills on 38 swings with just two errors, and Babcock nabbed 27 kills on 55 swings with only three hitting errors. 

Combined, that’s 48 kills — their opponent’s entire teams over the weekend only managed to earn seven more kills than the duo. 

And by the way — they are great at defense, too. 

Babcock tallied 16 digs and eight blocks over the weekend, including a 10-dig performance against the No. 13 team in the nation. Stafford in Georgia and South Carolina totaled 15 digs and three blocks to her name. 

Serve receive

Pitt allowed three aces all weekend long — that’s stout defense in serve receive. The only set where an opposition had multiple aces against Pitt was in the close first set against Clemson, where the Tigers had two. 

Clemson kept Pitt out of system with its aggressive serve, meaning senior setter Rachel Fairbanks didn’t have all of her hitters available during her set. Clemson kept this up for the majority of the first set, and if there was a blueprint to beat a team that looks as unstoppable as Pitt, that would be it. 

Despite Clemson having the correct plan, Pitt is just too good. The Panthers still won the first set by four points, which was the closest the team came to defeat all weekend long.

Over the next five sets of the weekend, the Panthers allowed just one ace, which came in the first set against Georgia Tech. On the other side of serve receive is Pitt’s serve, and it had a great serving weekend, acing its opponent 12 times. 

Pitt completely took advantage of Clemson on Friday in this facet of the game, acing them eight times. Then the team had its way against Georgia Tech on Sunday, acing them four times. The aces weren’t the only thing disrupting the opposing ACC teams in serve receive as Pitt constantly kept Clemson and Georgia Tech out of system, forcing the teams to have very low hitting percentages over the weekend. 

Defense

The Pitt defense could not have frustrated opponents more this weekend — Georgia Tech and Clemson were practically trying to hit through a brick wall.

Pitt accumulated 21 total blocks over the weekend, meaning the Panthers forced 3.5 errors per set just because of their block. When the ball made it through Pitt’s outstretched block, the Panthers earned a dig. Pitt tallied 80 digs over the weekend, good for 13.3 digs per set.

The Panthers’ block and back row playing this efficiently meant very low hitting percentages. The highest hitting percentage achieved against Pitt this weekend was .147 by Clemson in the first set, whereas the highest hitting percentage for Georgia Tech against Pitt was far worse — .088 in the second set.

Georgia Tech hit in the negatives against Pitt, meaning they had more errors than kills — the Yellow Jackets finished with 24 kills and 28 errors. The -.043 was Georgia Tech’s worst hitting percentage of the season by far — its second worst hitting percentage was against UCLA in the Yellow Jackets season opener when they hit .232. 

Clemson wasn’t as bad, but not all too impressive either, hitting .106 against the Panthers.