Volleyball ends season with win

In her final match, senior outside hitter Gini Ullery led all players with a match-high 20… In her final match, senior outside hitter Gini Ullery led all players with a match-high 20 kills and led the Panthers to victory one last time.

Pitt split its matches over the weekend, losing a tightly contested match Friday night to No. 24 Long Beach State before claiming a victory Saturday against UC-Irvine.

The Panthers ended their season with a 17-13 record and will not be entering the NCAA tournament, despite back-to-back appearances the past two years.

“We would’ve liked to finish the season better and push for an NCAA bid. After the upset over Notre Dame we just had a few untimely hiccups that prevented us from that,” head coach Chris Beerman said about the completion of the season.

Long Beach State 3, Pitt 0

In three very close sets, the Panthers fell to nationally ranked Long Beach State Friday at the Baden Thanksgiving Classic in Long Beach, Calif., for their fourth consecutive loss.

Led by Alexis Crimes, a sophomore middle hitter who is a 2005 All-American Candidate, the 49ers (25-5) moved past Pitt by scores of 30-27, 30-26 and 30-28. Crimes finished the match with 17 kills and four blocks to pace Long Beach State, which received a tougher game from Pitt than the 3-0 score indicates.

“We actually played very well,” Beerman said of the loss. “We made some changes to the line-up, putting Stephanie Ross in and moving Gini over to the right side. We had to get Steph in there. She had been practicing very well.”

Despite the loss, three Panthers put up double digits in kills.

Sophomore Diana Andreyko paved the way for Pitt, racking up 14 kills and 11 digs for a double-double. Senior Gini Ullery chipped in 13 kills on 26 errorless attempts for an impressive .500 hitting percentage. Ross, who was playing at the net for the first time since the start of the season, added 10 kills, seven digs, three blocks and a service ace.

Junior setter Azadeh Boroumand posted big numbers in the loss as well. Dominating at the net, Boroumand racked up eight kills in 10 errorless attempts and added 46 assists.

“Azadeh took over that spot from [Nicole] Taurence two weeks ago and has been playing with a lot of confidence,” Beerman said. “She did a nice job for us at the end of the season. There will definitely be a battle [for the starting setter position] in the spring.”

Pitt 3, UC-Irvine 1

One last time, the Pitt seniors led the way and helped the team to its final victory of the season. Ullery led every player on the court with 20 kills. She also added seven digs and four blocks in her last match.

Senior libero Megan McGrane also turned in a solid performance her final appearance as a Panther. She finished the match with 14 digs and four assists, ending her career at Pitt as the Panthers’ all-time leader in digs and ranked fourth among all NCAA Division I players in that category.

“It was nice to win that last match,” Beerman said. “Ullery’s 20 kills were very exciting and McGrane did what she has always done.”

He added, “McGrane is a legend. She’s a warrior, a hard player and consistent. She won’t ever be able to be replaced and is very hard to let her go.”

Pitt earned a victory in the first set with a 30-24 score before the Anteaters came back in the second set with a 30-23 win to tie up the match score. The Panthers silenced the opposition with two solid wins of 30-25 and 30-21 to close it out.

Ross continued her strong appearance over the weekend, racking up 18 kills and 11 digs for a double-double in the win, while Andreyko earned her second double-double of the weekend, netting 14 kills, 12 digs and five blocks on the day.

Boroumand had yet another strong appearance, massing 56 assists, nine digs and seven kills. Over the course of the final two matches of the season, Boroumand posted more than 100 assists while hitting .560 with 14 kills and only one error in 25 attempts. The win ended a roller-coaster season for the Panthers as they will break before off-season workouts.

“We were up and down all season, but we knew things would be that way. We had nice wins and strange losses,” Beerman said of this season. “We have a great group coming in for next year. They’ll be young again, but hopefully the playing time the freshman had this year will show.”