Volleyball wins two matches, but fails to make tournament

The Pitt volleyball team, which needed to defeat Long Island and West Virginia last weekend… The Pitt volleyball team, which needed to defeat Long Island and West Virginia last weekend to have a chance at making the Big East Tournament, also needed a little luck of the Irish – only Notre Dame didn’t pull through.

The Panthers (20-9 overall, 9-4 Big East) needed to win both of their remaining matches plus have the Fighting Irish win one of their two matches against Miami or Virginia Tech. Pitt swept Long Island at home Friday before traveling to conference rival West Virginia on Saturday, where it also claimed a victory and the team’s postseason hopes remained alive.

The Irish, who were unbeaten in their first 11 conference matches, were unable to defeat neither the Hurricanes nor Hokies, thus handing the Panthers a fifth-place finish in the Big East for the second year in a row and keeping them out of the tournament.

Pitt 3, Long Island 0

The Panthers secured a victory in their final match at Fitzgerald Field House by defeating the Blackbirds in three straight games, 30-14, 30-23 and 30-27, after taking a 12-0 lead in the first game.

It was a career day for sophomore Megan Miller, who had a career-high .778 hitting percentage, which ranks third all-time in Pitt history. Her previous best came earlier this season against Charleston Southern, where she hit .765. In the three games against Long Island, she picked up eight blocks, which tied her career-high.

Miller also recorded 14 kills in 18 errorless attempts and recorded four digs.

But the victory was a team effort as the Panthers hit a combined .426 while keeping the Blackbirds’ percentage to a minute .075.

Other key players in the Panthers’ win included Carrie Norris, Wendy Hatlestad and Sarah Rollman. Norris recorded a match-high 43 assists in her final home game and chipped in with eight digs and four kills. Hatlestad contributed 14 kills and a hitting percentage of .520 while Rollman added nine kills, four block assists and a .333 hitting percentage.

Freshmen Megan McGrane and Kim Norris also chipped in, as McGrane led the defense with 13 digs and Norris recorded a career-high four aces.

Pitt 3, West Virginia 2

Pitt came back from a two-game deficit to defeat the Mountaineers Saturday to keep in contention for a spot in the Big East Tournament. The Panthers dropped the first two games 29-31 and 26-30 before coming back to win 30-19, 30-26 and 15-11 at the West Virginia University Coliseum.

Miller was a factor for the Panthers once again as she led the team with 16 kills and McGrane added 23 digs.

The Panthers held a two-point lead, 29-27, in game one, but West Virginia answered with four straight points to take the win. Pitt found itself behind 27-26 in game two but was unable to contain the Mountaineers, who went up 2-0 in the match.

Pitt answered back by taking the next two games to force a decisive game five. The Panthers held the Mountaineers to hitting percentages of minus .154 and .060 in games three and four.

West Virginia found itself down by five points in the final game and rallied to pull within one, but the Panthers silenced the comeback and defeated the Mountaineers.

“We played extremely well in the first two games but we couldn’t hold on,” West Virginia coach Veronica Hammersmith said.

Carrie Norris recorded a match-high 62 assists for the Panthers while Madelyn Egan chipped in with 15 kills and a .414 hitting percentage.

The victory was Pitt’s 20th of the season and marked the second time in coach Chris Beerman’s three-year tenure that the team amassed that amount of wins. The Panthers, however, will once again miss postseason action because of Notre Dame failing to secure a win.

The Big East Tournament will begin Saturday at Fitzgerald Field House when No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 4 Connecticut meet at 1 p.m. That match will be followed by a contest between No. 2 Virginia Tech and No. 3 Miami at 3:30 p.m., with the winners of each match meeting in the championship match Sunday at 1 p.m.