Panthers clinch tournament spot

Despite clinching a berth in the Big East Tournament for the first time in three years, the… Despite clinching a berth in the Big East Tournament for the first time in three years, the Pitt volleyball team struggled in defeating West Virginia 3-0 on Friday night at Fitzgerald Field House.

According to head coach Chris Beerman, the Panthers played an uninspired match against a significantly less talented Mountaineer (6-19 overall, 2-8 Big East) squad.

“As a whole, we just didn’t play well,” Beerman said. “[The team] just seemed like they just wanted to play at West Virginia’s level and they seemed happy about it, which really was the most disappointing thing for me.”

In the first game, Pitt sprinted out to an early 4-0 lead before watching West Virginia come back to run off six consecutive points to take a two-point advantage at 12-10. The Panthers rallied to tie the game at 15 on the way to winning the first game by the score of 30-22.

The second game of the match saw yet another Mountaineer run, as West Virginia recovered from a two-point deficit to take a three-point lead at 14-11. Pitt used an ace by middle hitter April Puzauskas to tie the score at 15 and won the second game by the score of 30-25.

“[West Virginia’s] runs were caused by our errors and lack of focus,” Beerman said. “We hit a lot of balls out of bounds and we just played a very poor match.”

The Panthers started the third game of the match with a six-point run that featured an ace by outside hitter Abby Fechhelm. Pitt never looked back as it rolled to a 30-23 victory over the Mountaineers.

“Abby had a good game,” Beerman said. “She came out and had a better week of practice and did a lot of nice things.”

As a team, the Panthers combined for 38 kills, 12.5 blocks and six aces. Individually, Pitt was led by outside hitter Wendy Hatlestad, who finished the match with 14 kills, seven digs and five blocks. Middle hitter Megan Miller added 12 kills and three blocks while libero Megan McGrane contributed 16 digs for Pitt.

With the victory, the Panthers improved their record to 20-4 and 9-1 in the Big East play. Additionally, the win also gives Beerman his third 20-win season in four years.

Beerman believes that his team played very tentatively and displayed a complete lack of focus that must be corrected immediately.

“This is the time you really want to step it up and play your best ball at the end of the year,” Beerman said.

Pitt’s next match will be against Syracuse next weekend at Fitzgerald Field House.

“[Our] next match is Syracuse, a very good team, a very physical team, a team that is going to be very confident,” Beerman said. “And we have to fix this tentative thing right now or that is going to be a tough match for us.

“We’re going to have a hard week of practice and we need to change our mindset.”