Volleyball suffers bumpy road trip, drops two in tourney

A week after finishing third in its own tournament, the Pitt volleyball team found a similar… A week after finishing third in its own tournament, the Pitt volleyball team found a similar finish in the highly competitive Wildcat Classic in Evanston, Ill.

With a record of 1-2, the Panthers (10-4 overall, 0-0 Big East) finished behind nationally ranked Arizona and host Northwestern in the team’s final tuneup before conference action. Even Pitt’s sole win of the weekend was a difficult one, a five-game, come-from-behind win over the Eastern Illinois Panthers.

Northwestern topped No. 24 Arizona for the crown, leaving the Wildcats in second place for the weekend.

The Panthers will open up conference action this Friday when they return home to Fitzgerald Fieldhouse for a 7 p.m. matchup with St. John’s.

No. 24 Arizona 3, Pitt 0

Despite forcing the Wildcats (8-2) into overtime in the first two games, the Panthers couldn’t find enough answers to get past their second nationally ranked opponent in a week.

Pitt didn’t help its cause by falling behind 5-0 before finding the scoreboard. A quick rally, capped off by a kill from senior Azadeh Boroumand, knotted the game at six. A virtually even-handed contest persisted until Pitt pulled ahead 19-17. That lead proved to be temporary, however, as the Wildcats put together a strong run to not only tie the game at 23, but to also counteract four more kills from Stephanie Ross to preserve a 31-29 win in the first game.

Arizona again seized a quick 2-0 lead in game two before the Panthers managed a 5-3 lead. Plenty of ties ensued until freshman Meagan Dooley recorded one of her team-high four blocks on the match to give head coach Chris Beerman’s squad an 11-8 lead. Pitt stayed comfortably ahead and used a combined block from Dooley and Jessica Moses to open up a six-point lead at 20-14. Six consecutive Wildcat points tied the game and Arizona used a crucial Pitt attack error and a strong offensive showing to hold on for another 31-29 win.

Game three proved to be no contest for Arizona, as the Wildcats opened up leads of 18-7 and 21-8 in cruising to a 30-13 win and three-game sweep.

Boroumand ended the match with 31 assists and seven kills for the Panthers.

Northwestern 3, Pitt 1

Another overtime loss to open the match proved to be disastrous for the Panthers, whose measly .158 hitting percentage proved costly in a 3-1 loss to the host Wildcats. Northwestern (5-3) posted four players with double-digit kills.

In perhaps the biggest seesaw affair of the tournament, Pitt got six kills from Ross and four different players with a block. Sophomore Nicole Taurence came in and dished out six assists, but the Panthers couldn’t come up with enough answers. The teams played even for 31 points each before Northwestern pulled ahead, 32-31. A Panther block evened the game for one last time before two Northwestern kills gave the hosts a 34-32 win.

Ross (19 kills on the match) and Andreyko (17 kills) went to work early in game two. The teammates put up lofty numbers in the Panthers’ first win of the tournament, with Andreyko pounding out six kills on a .462 hitting percentage and Ross five at a .400 clip. Overall, Pitt out-hit Northwestern .308 to .185 in the 30-28 win.

That hot hitting was the last Pitt would see on the day, however. The Panthers hit only .065 and .022 in the third and fourth games respectively, committing eight attacking errors in the third game and 12 in the final one. Pitt fell behind 14-3 in the third game as the Wildcats soundly beat them 30-20, and then found itself trailing 17-10 in the fourth game. Although a match-high 49 assists from Taurence helped the Panthers narrow the gap, Northwestern held on for a 30-23 win and 3-1 win for the match.

Pitt 3, Eastern Illinois 2

In a battle of the Panthers, Pitt managed to out-hit its opponent .259 to .151 in rallying twice for a 3-2 win to close out the tournament in third place.

Dropping the first and third games, the Panthers used a match-high 22 kills from Andreyko and a double-double from Boroumand (55 assists and 14 digs) to rally past Eastern Illinois (5-5) on two separate occasions.

Game one may have been Pitt’s worst of the tournament. Eastern Illinois jumped out to a 17-4 lead and withstood a six-point rally from Pitt to hold on for a 30-23 win. Beerman’s squad was out-hit badly for the match, registering only a .108 attacking percentage.

Andreyko, Moses and Dooley led the way in game two, using strong kills and solid net play to pave the way for a 21-12 lead for the Panthers. That margin proved to be insurmountable for an Eastern Illinois squad that committed 11 attacking errors as Pitt took game two, 30-19.

Both teams took turns dominating games three and four with Eastern Illinois hitting .324 in a 30-24 game three win and then committing nine attacking errors in Pitt’s 30-18 game four win. The split set up a decisive game five in which Andreyko registered three kills. Pitt bolted to a 6-2 lead that it would never relinquish, pulling away for a 15-8 win.