Volleyball strong in home debut

Pitt volleyball coach Chris Beerman isn’t about to quibble over the intricacies behind his… Pitt volleyball coach Chris Beerman isn’t about to quibble over the intricacies behind his team’s 8-0 start, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t finding mistakes.

“I thought our heads weren’t in the match tonight, but that’s a lesson they’re going to have to learn,” he said after a sloppy 3-0 conquest of visiting Duquesne Tuesday night. “I mean, we’re 8-0 so I can’t complain, but we do have work to do.”

Still, despite somewhat slapdash play, the Panthers exerted enough potency to coast past the Dukes in their first home match of the season. Pitt got standout performances from Stephanie Ross (16 kills, 15 digs and three blocks on .297 hitting) and Diana Andreyko (18 kills and 11 digs) in overpowering the visitors.

“Stephanie is just playing fantastic right now,” Beerman said of his sophomore. “This is the player I recruited, the one I saw back dominating club ball. She’s rock solid and a great complement to Diana.”

Any time the Dukes put together any type of rally, the impending doom that was Ross and Andryeko came. Monstrous kills from the outside, touch blocks at the net and screaming shots down the middle that bounced off Duke defenders — they came at the most opportune times and helped the Panthers dominate nearly every statistical category, including kills (60 to 37), hitting percentage .285 to .131) and assists (58 to 33).

Factor into the equation that Pitt blocked twice as many shots (14) as Duquesne, and it simply became a matter of how close the three-game sweep would be. The teams played the first 12 points of the first game evenly until Andreyko began to assert herself. She pounded home one kill and on the next play elevated above everyone else on the court for a thunderous kill that no Duke defender wanted a part of.

A few blocks and a Panther service error helped the Dukes climb to 13-12 before Pitt rectified its sloppy start. Ross and Jessica Moses alternated scoring the next four Pitt points and Andreyko chipped in a few to pace a 12-3 Pitt run, making the lead a comfortable 25-15. The Dukes chipped in a few measly points but eventually succumbed in the opener, 30-20.

Neither energy nor a sense of urgency could be found among the Panthers in the early moments of the second game, and the Dukes took advantage. Some miscommunication and a few attacking errors paved the way for a 5-1 Duquesne lead. Once again, it was Ross and Andreyko that led the Panther attack. Throw in a kill and block from setter Azadeh Boroumand and the Panthers crept back into the contest, now only trailing 9-8.

Three straight Duke points prompted a Beerman timeout. His team countered with none other than Andreyko, whose fierce kills simply bowled over the Duke defense. Ross then killed two straight and Boroumand duped the Duke defense with a dump. The Panthers suddenly led 20-17, which quickly swelled to 24-20 before a quick rally brought the visitors within 25-23.

Trouble? Maybe for other teams, but they don’t have Ross and Andreyko.

The two pummeled the opposition with scorching kills and forceful blocks, helping the Panthers hold on for a 30-26 win.

Despite an early lead, the Dukes opened the door for a Pitt rally in the third game, committing two unforced errors so that the Panthers could tie the game at nine. Boroumand dished out 16 of her game-high 50 assists in the final game, five of them coming off the hand of Ross, who chipped in five kills in the final frame.

Pitt held leads by as much as seven in completing the sweep, meaning Beerman can begin to prepare his squad for the Pitt Invitational this weekend, where the Panthers will play host to national power Tennessee at 7 p.m. tomorrow. He pointed to the team’s defense and trouble passing the ball as items to work on.

“We haven’t had a lot of practice time,” Beerman said of his team’s preparation for tomorrow. “We’ve just been kind of going from tournament to tournament. We need two solid days of practice so that we can get back to basics and work on fundamentals. I think this team will really raise the level for Friday.”