Volleyball goes 2-1 in tourney

A second-place finish in its Pittsburgh Invitational was not what the women’s volleyball team… A second-place finish in its Pittsburgh Invitational was not what the women’s volleyball team had in mind, but it was all they were able to accomplish as they fell short 3-0 to Idaho in the championship match.

After two quick routs of Howard and Portland in their first matchups of the tournament, Pitt could not play up to their level after running into an Idaho team that seemed in complete control.

Despite finishing in second place, however, the efforts of Megan Miller and Megan McGrane landed each of them on the Pittsburgh Invitational All-Tournament team.

“You want to win at home,” head coach Chris Beerman said. “Most people won’t know that Idaho is a very good team that went to the NCAA tournament last year, and we just didn’t play our best against them.”

Pitt 3, Portland 0

Pitt swept its matchup with Portland with scores of 30-17, 30-23 and 30-20 to start off the tournament with a quick win.

Miller led the Panthers to victory with 14 kills in 28 attempts with four digs and three block assists.

During the first game of the match, McGrane broke her own record of 27 digs in a three-game match by recording 28.

“It is a nice record that she probably won’t put too much thought into,” Beerman said. “She has all of this year and next to keep playing, so I’m sure more records will be coming her way.”

Pitt 3, Howard 0

By winning its second match with Howard, Pitt improved to 2-0 for the first time since 1998 in an attempt to successfully defend its Big East championship.

Abby Fechhelm recorded a match-high 15 kills off the bench, while Ashley Creighton and Diana Andreyko each added six kills.

“We got off to good starts in the first two matches,” Beerman said. “After that, it seemed as though nothing would go right, and we couldn’t play well at all.”

Idaho 3, Pitt 0

Pitt started the first game out on top, but Idaho was able to come from behind and take a 30-28 win and capture all the momentum.

In the final two frames of the match, Idaho ran away with victories by a total of 14 points over the Panthers.

“They played very well,” Beerman said. “We didn’t block or pass well. It’s hard to win when you don’t do those things well.”

Idaho’s Sarah Meek — tournament MVP — led the Vandals with 15 kills, while Pitt’s Gini Ullery came away with 15 kills and 13 digs.

“We are going to have a really good team this year,” Beerman said. “This will just be one game where we didn’t play our best.”

The Panthers will now center their attention to this weekend when they travel to Boulder, Colo., to take on Colorado, North Carolina and San Diego.

“We can put this Idaho game behind us, and we have the opportunity to do so by getting right back into action and beat a few quality teams this weekend.”