Volleyball: Aggressive play set up Pitt for win over Louisville

Ever since Louisville joined the Big East in 2005, the Pitt women’s volleyball team had yet to… Ever since Louisville joined the Big East in 2005, the Pitt women’s volleyball team had yet to win a match against the Cardinals.

That is, until the Panthers went to Louisville last weekend.

The Panthers notched their first victory over the Cardinals in a thrilling five-match tilt, with a 15-12 victory in the last set of the match.

The match was close throughout, and the Panthers came from behind in the fifth deciding set to beat the defending Big East champions.

The Panthers (11-7, 3-1 Big East) moved into a tie for second place in the Big East, with Syracuse and Connecticut, after the win.

“We were really aggressive, and the focus, I thought, was really good from start to finish,” Pitt coach Toby Rens said.

The Panthers finished strong in the match against a Louisville team that was picked to win the Big East in a preseason poll.

In the fifth set, the Panthers had 11 kills on 25 attempts for a .280 hitting percentage, their highest hitting percentage in the entire match.

Offensively, the Panthers had four players notch double-digit kills.

Senior Meagan Dooley led the Pitt attack with 22 kills, four blocks and a .487 hitting percentage, while senior Melissa Stadelman had 15 kills and seven digs.

Junior Amy Town notched a double-double for the match, posting 13 kills and 15 digs.

Senior Allyson Hodnik also had a double-double, collecting 67 assists and 10 digs.

“So many people stepped up throughout the match,” Rens said. “We were definitely led by Meagan. She scored 26 points total, but players like Michelle Walker came off the bench and had seven kills. For a freshman coming off the bench, she did really good for that.”

Rens also said Dooley, along with junior Imani Harper, were key in shutting down Louisville’s powerful middle-hitters.

“I thought Meagan and Imani did a great job controlling their middles,” Rens said. “[Louisville’s] Lecia Brown has one of the highest hitting percentages in the country, and we held her to a .167 average, and the other middle, we held her to a low hitting percentage.”

Pitt lost its first match of the weekend 3-1 to Cincinnati, another team picked to finish ahead of Pitt in the preseason poll.

Rens said he wasn’t pleased with Pitt’s sloppy play on Saturday.

“We had 13 service errors and no aces against Cincinnati, and as far as passing, we had seven reception errors,” he said. “I think that was our worst number all season.”

Against the Cardinals, the Panthers had four reception errors and five service errors in five sets.

“We wanted to rebound from a loss to a quality team,” Rens said. “We were a little disappointed because we feel like we didn’t play our best. We did a good job of focusing on match day against Louisville and put the Cincinnati loss behind us.”