Formerly No. 15 and now No. 12 SMU, whom No. 1 Pitt beat handily on Wednesday, got its revenge in front of its home crowd, defeating the Panthers in five grueling sets. SMU looked like an entirely different team in the Moody Center than it did in the Fitzgerald Field House three days earlier.
So why was this game when Pitt finally fell?
Serving and receiving
Pitt looked out of sorts when serving and receiving the ball in serve receive. Pitt was making costly serving errors and passing out of system far too often. The Panthers have excelled in these areas all season, but neither was at its best or even average in Dallas.
Coming into Saturday’s matchup, the most serving errors Pitt committed in a match was eight, against No. 3 Penn State. Pitt against SMU had 12, the first time it had double-digit serving errors all season.
The eight serving errors against Penn State in three sets are more service errors per set than the 12 in five sets Pitt had against SMU, 2.67 to 2.4. But Pitt made up for most of the serving errors with service aces against Penn State, scoring six aces to the eight errors against the Nittany Lions. Against SMU, Pitt did not. It only had six aces to the 12 errors in the five sets played.
The Syracuse matchup was the only other game all season where Pitt had double or more the amount of aces to serving errors to aces. The Panthers could make up for that against a bottom-of-the-ACC team in the Orange, but not against a team that had already defeated No. 2 Nebraska at home.
SMU scored six service aces against Pitt on Wednesday — the most Pitt allowed all season. In Dallas, SMU topped this number with seven aces. Serving was the only thing that worked for the Mustangs earlier in the week, and that followed on their flight back to Dallas.
The Mustangs are also the first team to have more aces than Pitt in a matchup this season. So for those counting at home, when accounting for the same or more aces than an opponent, Pitt is 15-0. Pitt’s record when the opponent scores more aces — 0-1. The battle of serve and receive is critical to winning, and Saturday was a great reminder for head coach Dan Fisher’s squad.
Back-to-back is no easy task
SMU is a top-15 team, now a top-12 team, after besting Pitt at home. The Mustangs are no joke — they have an insanely impressive resume. Most notably, SMU swept Nebraska at home with ease.
Pitt knew leaving Moody Coliseum with a win was no easy task. It saw SMU’s win over Nebraska, and despite running all over it earlier in the week, Pitt knew that wouldn’t happen again.
“I think it’s definitely going to be a good, tougher game than it was today,” Babcock said after Wednesday’s match, previewing the second game of the back-to-back.
Fisher compared the back-to-back to a chess match after the first game, and SMU head coach Sam Erger was a worthy chess opponent for Fisher. Erger has a great chance to win National Coach of the Year after SMU’s impressive start to the season, and that showed during the second game of the back-to-back.
Erger didn’t make many adjustments in the first matchup — she just watched Pitt continually crush SMU. It was an interesting first move from the talented coach. The Bowling Green alumni saved her big move for the fourth set in the second game after Pitt smacked SMU 25-13 in the prior set.
Graduate student outside hitter Natalie Perdue started instead of junior outside hitter Jentry Lamirand, and Erger was proved correct in the final two sets of the game, which SMU won 25-23, 15-9.
Perdue earned four kills, a .300 hitting percentage and three blocks. In the three sets Lamirand started, she tallied one kill, a -.100 hitting percentage and one block. Erger’s final chess move of the match earned a win for the Mustangs and evened up the season series with the No. 1 team in the nation.
SMU deserves praise
Pitt’s loss to SMU is no crazy upset — the Mustangs are a top team that can beat anyone in their gym. The No. 1 and No. 2 teams have both fallen to SMU in Moody Coliseum.
“It’s a tough place to play, and SMU is really good,” Nebraska head coach John Cook said when asked about Pitt falling to the Mustangs. “It’s hard to win. Pittsburgh found out. Everybody thought they were kind of invincible, but SMU is for real.”
Although “Everybody thought they were kind of invincible” feels like a jab at Pitt, Cook points out Pitt didn’t lose to some slouch. Plus, it’s good that the head coach of the team that destroyed Pitt in last year’s Final Four is already thinking about Pitt.