After first-round upset, tourney dreams crash

For the Pitt women’s volleyball team, it was a matter of showing up for the home crowd when it… For the Pitt women’s volleyball team, it was a matter of showing up for the home crowd when it needed to the most. The Panthers pulled off a first-round upset in the Big East tournament of No. 2-seeded Cincinnati on Friday, but dropped their semi-final matchup against No. 3-seeded Louisville on Saturday at the Fitzgerald Field House. The Panthers, according to coach Toby Rens, suffered too many early season losses to receive an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. Pitt must now refocus for next season and fill the void left by five departing seniors. ‘Everybody had a lot of great things to say to the seniors in the locker room afterwards,’ said Rens. ‘A lot of the underclassmen appreciated the leadership they provided and the character they showed as a group.’ Junior Meagan Dooley led the Panthers in their 3-1 loss against the Cardinals with five blocks, including two solo blocks to push her to second all-time in the Panthers’ career solo-blocks list. Dooley recorded her second double-double of the season with a career-high 11 blocks and 11 kills in the Panthers’ 3-2 victory over the Bearcats. The win was the Panthers’ first in the Big East tournament since 2004, when they took down No. 3-seeded Syracuse. On Friday, the Panthers overcame a 0-2 deficit to defeat the Bearcats in a thrilling, five-set match. ‘We didn’t do a good job of executing our game plan to the best of our abilities in the first two sets,’ said Rens. ‘But we did a really great job of executing in the next three.’ The win snapped the Bearcats’ 15-match winning streak. Junior Michelle Rossi said the most important factor in Pitt winning the game was its blocking. ‘We knew we had to pick up our defense and blocking,’ said Rossi. The first play out of halftime, Dooley stuffed a Cincinnati attack to set the tone for the Panthers. ‘It’s so awesome when you say what’s going wrong and the very next play we fix it,’ said Rossi.