Pitt volleyball meets Louisville in Final Four again…

Pitt and Louisville are no strangers to one another on the volleyball court. Thursday’s Final Four match marks the third season in a row where the two have played one another three times in a season. 

Each time in the third match, one ended the other’s season.

Louisville eliminated Pitt in the Final Four two years ago. Pitt eliminated Louisville in the Elite Eight last season. And this season is the rubber match with stakes as big as ever. 

“We know they’re going to bring their best,” sophomore opposite hitter Olivia Babcock said. “We know we’re going to bring our best and just make the little plays [that] separate us.”

Pitt is 2-0 against Louisville this season and in each match, the Panthers have made those little plays that Babcock is talking about. But the Panthers know it doesn’t get easier from here. 

Beating a team for a third time in a season and a second time in as many games in the KFC Yum! Center is no small task, but Pitt knows exactly what it’s walking into. 

“It’s nice that we’re here and we played against them three weeks ago in this arena and we have the opportunity to play them again on this big stage,” sophomore outside hitter Torrey Stafford said. “We’ve been here before. It’s our second home.”

With the familiarity, Pitt head coach Dan Fisher didn’t even have his team watch any Louisville film earlier in the week. Instead, they worked with things they wanted to fix on the floor. 

“I’m trying to find that balance as a coach because when you overdo it, sometimes the athletes are trying to play a scouting report on the court,” Fisher said. “We want them on the court playing the percentages but trusting what they’re seeing.”

Fisher and the team already know who will earn the bulk of the Cardinals’ attempts, outside hitters graduate student Anna DeBeer and senior Charitie Luper. And the Panthers have done a great job holding the duo in check with neither earning a hitting percentage higher than .250 in the past three matches. 

Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly is similar to Fisher in how her team is preparing for Pitt.

“We try not to over-scout,” Busboom Kelly said. “…I think it’s more focusing on our side of the net going into Thursday than focusing on what Pitt is doing.”  

Busboom Kelly understands what Pitt brings, especially with an AVCA Player of the Year Finalist in Babcock who has dominated the Cardinals in her three previous meetings with Louisville.

Babcock had 16 kills and a hitting percentage of .286 in the Elite Eight last season. Then, in the Petersen Events Center in 2024, she tallied 22 kills and a .326 hitting percentage. The last time she was in the KFC Yum! Center, she tabbed 23 kills and hit .311 for the Panthers. 

The Los Angeles, California native has been a problem for the Cardinals and they know that. They just plan on enduring the amount of kills the Panthers’ opposite hitter earns. 

“She’s going to get her kills. She’s a great player. She’s extremely physical. We’ll do our best with the game plan, but you can do everything perfectly against Babcock, and she’s still going to kill the ball,” Busboom Kelly said. “We just have to weather that storm and hope offensively that we can match some of that intensity. I think your plan cannot be to slow her down. You’ve got to find other ways to win.” 

If Louisville isn’t worried about stopping Babcock, it is certainly game-planning for another Southern California native — Stafford. The sophomore outside hitter also has past success against the Cardinals, earning 15 or more kills in each of the three past matches and a combined hitting percentage of .312. 

The teams are littered with talent, but it wasn’t always like this for either team. To get these highly touted players like DeBeer, Luper, Stafford and Babcock, teams had to earn that respect from recruits.

“When we started the rise, both Pitt and us had to have a little extra something,” Busboom Kelly said. “Neither one of us had top 10 recruits. We needed that extra edge.”

The teams now have that edge, but Pitt and Louisville want to beat one another as badly as they did when the teams started to rise up the rankings. 

Instead of battling over an ACC Title, the two are battling over an appearance in the National Championship for the second time in three years. Without the steady climb with one another, neither would have a match in Louisville, Kentucky tomorrow.