Volleyball: Pitt improves to 9-2 in Big East play, eyeing a conference title

Don’t look now, but the Pitt women’s volleyball team is a top-three team and a serious… Don’t look now, but the Pitt women’s volleyball team is a top-three team and a serious contender for the Big East crown.

With three games left in the regular season, Pitt (17-8 overall, 9-2 Big East), has mathematically secured its second straight trip to the Big East Tournament, according to coach Toby Rens.

“I think nine wins was that magic number coming into the year,” Rens said.

The tournament, which is in Louisville, Ky., this year, takes the top eight of the 15 teams in the Big East. Pitt sits in third place in the conference, behind Notre Dame and Cincinnati — the only two teams it lost to this season.

The Panthers have three games remaining. They will host Villanova, Seton Hall and Rutgers.

Pitt took care of two teams this weekend — last year’s regular season Big East champion St. Johns and Connecticut — both by shutouts. The games were Pitt’s third and fourth consecutive shutouts.

“St. Johns is a very talented team. It was a very good win,” Rens said. “They have a very good crowd and experienced players. We put a lot of focus on blocking in preparations. We had 18 against St. John’s. For a three-set match to have 18 blocks is phenomenal. That really helped us.”

Senior Meagan Dooley led Pitt to victory over St. John’s Friday with a match-high 10 blocks and six kills, while junior Imani Harper had an impressive nine kills and seven blocks.

Sophomore Allyson Hodnik secured Pitt’s 3-0 victory with 25 assists.

It was more of the same against the Huskies. Hodnik posted 45 assists, while Dooley and senior Melissa Stadelman had 17 and 10 kills, respectively

The Panthers had 27 team blocks for the weekend. After its back-to-back wins, Pitt ranks eighth out of 329 teams in the country, averaging 2.82 blocks per set.

Pitt heads into this weekend having not lost a set in four matches.

“The two big things [through the last four games] have been amazing leadership and consistency,” Rens said. “I’m very happy with the captains and seniors with the stability and poise they provide on the court down the stretch.”

Rens acknowledged that this year, the Panthers are peaking at the right time.

“The work ethic has been outstanding all year,” he said. “To be 9-2 in the Big East is outstanding.”

The Panthers season has had high and low points. The team’s low was a five-game losing streak in early September, and its peak was its Oct. 4 road victory against defending Big East champion Louisville.

The Panthers were breaking in new starters and players — even while facing nationally ranked competition — including Harper, Stadelman, Hodnik, sophomore Rachel Kalberer, freshman Lauren Hartman and junior college transfers Melanie Feldman and Brittany Fallis, Rens said.

“The improvements all of them have made have been outstanding,” he said.

Hodnik has stepped into the setter position on the team. The setter is the equivalent of a point guard in basketball or quarterback in football. Hodnik’s understanding of the team’s attack is vital to the Panthers’ success.

“I had worked in practice playing with every player, so it was a pretty easy transition,” Hodnik said. “But it was tough because you knew going in that being a starter, you’d have the pressure on your back. But the players around me are awesome and it makes my job a lot easier.”

Hodnik also credited a solid spring season and team off-the-court activities — such as a bowling night — that unified the team.

Rens does his part by getting the players ready for game situations in practice.

“We’ve done a lot of situational stuff in practice, trying to create a lot of game-like situations and a lot of pressure situations,” Rens said. “It’s impossible to simulate the pressure of 3,000 people, but luckily there’s been some success with it as far as the win and loss column goes.”

Players such as Hodnik, who stepped into one of four vacant starting positions from last year, are the type of players contributing to Pitt’s run for the Big East title this year.

“It’d be awesome, and I know everyone is working really hard to get there, to be able to prove to people who ranked us ninth in the pre-season poll,” Hodnik said.