Volleyball gets ugly win at WVU

After winning a close first game, 31-29, the Pitt women’s volleyball team fell behind early… After winning a close first game, 31-29, the Pitt women’s volleyball team fell behind early to West Virginia in game two, 8-12. The team rebounded with great serving off the bench by Junior Melissa Ferguson. Ferguson went on a run of seven serves, including one ace, putting the Panthers up 15-12.

“You want somebody to come in the match and make a difference,” Pitt head coach Chris Beerman said of Ferguson’s serving. “Her job is to come in and serve tough. It’s hard to sit over there on the bench and just come in and serve points. She was probably the difference in that second game, she really turned the match around for us.”

Ferguson finished the match leading all servers with two aces to improve her season mark to 16, good enough for third best on the team behind Meagan Dooley and Stephanie Ross. Ferguson’s performance paced the Panthers to a 3-0 victory.

The victory improved the Panthers’ overall record to 16-6 and their Big East record to 5-2. The team will be on the road for its next two matches at Marquette on Friday, Oct. 20, and at Syracuse on Sunday, Oct. 22.

Despite winning the match, the Panthers played very error-prone volleyball. As coach Beerman put it, “We played well enough to win, but that’s about it.”

Beerman also went on to talk about West Virginia’s 2-19 record not being representative of its abilities on the court.

Going into the match, Pitt held an undefeated all-time record against the Mountaineers. The Panthers’ victory helped improve their undefeated streak to 36-0. Beerman added, “I wish we would stop putting that in our releases before the match. It’s always good to come down here and win.”

Junior Diana Andreyko did not want any part of thinking about Pitt’s 35-0 record coming into the match.

“I think we attack every game the same way,” she said. “If that’s our record, then that’s how it is because of the fact of what we do, not because of the legacy.”

With that mindset, Andreyko led Pitt’s offensive attack with 15 kills, coupled with the match-best 13 digs, for a double-double. Senior setter Azadeh Boroumand also recorded a double-double with 44 assists and 10 digs.

Boroumand’s setting allowed the Panthers to out hit the Mountaineers 0.172 to 0.065. Boroumand also scored some key points for the Panthers, breaking the 26-26 tie in game one with a dump-kill one point after stuffing West Virginia’s Abby Tevis with a huge solo block.

Game one started off back and forth, neither team scoring more than two points in a row. That ended when West Virginia committed an error that allowed Pitt to go on a four-serve run that finished off with a triple-block in the middle, perfectly reading the Mountaineers’ attempt at a combo attack.

WVU took a 26-25 lead toward the end of game one and Ferguson served four balls, including one ace, to give the Panthers a 28-26 lead. They didn’t look back, finishing the game 31-29.

Andreyko led the way with eight kills on 14 swings for a 0.429 attack percentage in game two. Aside from recording nine digs throughout the match, freshman libero Michelle Rossi added an unlikely kill for Pitt – her first of the season.

The Panthers put WVU away in game two with a slide-kill by Meagan Dooley, giving the team a three-point victory at 30-27.

Poor passing early in the match did not allow the Panthers to establish their middles. This resulted in sophomore middle blocker Jessica Moses being relatively ineffective.

But Moses picked it up and tied game three at four with a huge block in the middle, and then broke a 7-7 tie by getting an uncontested kill. Moses finished strong at the end of the match with a kill for Pitt’s 29th point as it went on to win game three, 30-23.

“She’s a kid that likes to be challenged, when you kind of get in her face a little bit and tell her she’s sucking, she usually picks it up,” Beerman stated regarding Moses’ play. “I sometimes forget that, that she is one of those types of kids that you can really challenge and she usually come through if you do that. I thought she did that the third game.”

Pitt does not return home until it takes on non-conference opponent Long Island on Friday, Oct. 27, in the Fitzgerald Field House.