Cat Flood is ‘so Pitt volleyball’: The server says goodbye

Pitt volleyball threw a party in February 2024 — a random day for a team that plays in the fall to celebrate, but fitting to recognize one of Pitt volleyball’s most influential players.

February was the month serving specialist Cat Flood announced she would return to Pitt for her final season of eligibility rather than transferring to another school. The partying wasn’t just limited to the volleyball program, either. Faithful fans were as excited as ever to see their serving specialist return to Oakland. 

Flood didn’t understand why the Instagram post of her announcing her return to the Pitt volleyball program earned the reception it did. 

“Guys, I literally serve the ball and then leave, like what the heck?” Flood said. 

Flood’s role is as simple as that. She comes in, serves the ball and plays in senior libero Emmy Klika’s defensive spot in the back row as best as she can. 

Sometimes she comes in, serves once and leaves after one play, or she might stay in for the rest of the set — it all depends on how well she does on her service run. It’s more emotionally taxing of a role than it seems. 

“I have worked myself up so much this season with like, ‘Oh my gosh, like I have to do this, blah, blah, blah,’” Flood said. “Usually it’s not something I struggle with at all. But I have to realize I am fully in control. I have the ball in my hand, I will dictate this play … That’s been helping.”

In 2024, Flood has had a career year from the service line. She surpassed her season high in aces with 25, beating her previous season high of 17. Flood also hardly commits service errors, with only 11 this season. As of Nov. 8, the Wilmette, Illinois, native ranked as the eighth-best server among all of NCAA volleyball.

Sophomore outside hitter Torrey Stafford — who plays the entire game — knows when Flood walks out onto the floor, she will make a difference for the Panthers.

“I feel like every time Cat steps on the court, she makes an impact some way and somehow,” Stafford said. “Whether that be like going on a big run for us, or just emotionally bringing whatever we need on the court.” 

“I think she has the mindset of whatever the team needs. And I think it’s really special, and she’s so special for our team and our program, because, you know, whatever role she is on the court, she’s going to make an impact.”

Flood has taken the serving specialist role for the Panthers in stride.

“I bought into it for the past few years,” Flood said. “I realized that’s my role, that’s where I am going to contribute. And I am totally OK with that. I literally just want to be on the court, I don’t really care.”

Associate head coach Kellen Petrone, who helped throw the party for Flood, knows that serving in a role with such volatility game to game isn’t easy for anyone to take. 

“I think it takes a lot of maturity,” Petrone said. “And Cat has shown that, the role she has played, in some of the biggest moments we’ve ever been in. She just knows she’s still making an impact.” 

Arguably the biggest win in program history to date — Pitt’s defeat of Wisconsin in the Elite Eight — was thanks to Flood’s heroics at the service line with a career-high of three aces against the defending National Champions on their home floor. 

Even as the game fades from her memory, Flood gets to see how “locked in” she was from the service line when she scrolls through X, formerly Twitter. She’s seen the photo of herself with laser eyes looking across the net countless times.  

Flood uses X infrequently and is most known for her presence on TikTok. Before every game this season, Flood does a pregame TikTok dance with Stafford. 

“We saw somebody else doing it last year and we were like, ‘Why don’t we do this?” Flood said. “It’s my last year. Torrey was like, ‘I don’t want to do it with anybody else.’ So we were like, ‘Screw it, let’s do it.’”

The dance has become part of Flood’s and Stafford’s regimen.

“After a game day practice, we go eat, and then Cat and I will go, ‘OK, let’s make our Tik Tok,’” Stafford said. “The night before [a game] we always learn the dance. It’s a part of the routine now.”

If Pitt wins, she posts the TikTok — it’s that simple. There was only one time in the entire season when no postgame video made it to TikTok. 

“The awkward one was when we lost to SMU,” Flood said. “We were like ‘Uh oh, do we post it?’ We did not post it.” 

In every video that did make it to TikTok, Flood has her signature two-tone hair, split-dyed down the middle with blonde on one side and brown on the other. Flood took a brief stint away from the hairstyle in the summer of 2023, but when a little girl at a Pitt volleyball summer camp didn’t notice her, she knew she had to revert back. 

With a unique hair color comes constant recognition on campus — in fact, Flood doesn’t go to the Starbucks on campus because of how often she gets stopped. 

“In my head, I’m like, ‘Why aren’t they doing this with like Liv and Torrey?’” Flood said. “The hair is such a dead giveaway.” 

The end of her volleyball career might mark the end of her recognizability.

“I’m probably going to cut it and change it in January, so I will be a whole new person, see what happens,” Flood said. “It will be a nice social test.”

Despite changes in appearances, Flood’s friends and teammates know her personality will stay exactly the same. 

“She easily can make a friend and [is] super sweet and super personable,” Stafford said.

That is the person and teammate who Pitt volleyball threw a party for when she decided Oakland is where she will end her collegiate career. Flood’s time in the transfer portal this past offseason helped her realize she was always meant to finish her career as a Pitt Panther. 

“I was obviously a non-athlete for seven weeks,” Flood said. “I was like, what am I doing with my life? Like what is going on? Like, who am I? Where am I going? What am I even doing?”

But the team knew her return to Oakland was imminent.

“I think we all knew that she was gonna come back,” Stafford said. “She has 412 tatted on her, and she loves Pittsburgh.” “Literally in the locker room, everyone was like, ‘Oh, Cat’s gonna be back. It was a constant conversation — we knew that she was coming back.”

In 2017 and 2018 when Flood was recruited to Pitt, the coaches thought she was a perfect fit for the Panthers — something that’s been proven true over the last five years. 

“There was almost an instant connection, and when there is an instant connection like that, you know it [is] right for both parties,” Petrone said. “Clearly it has shown in her career here.”

Pitt volleyball won’t feel the same next season without Flood. No salute from the Pitt VolleyBand, no postgame TikToks with Flood and Stafford and no two-tone hairstyle.

“Cat is so Pitt volleyball,” Stafford said. “It was only right for her to end her collegiate career here.”