Pitt Volleyball Advances to Fifth-Straight Final Four With 3-1 Win Over Purdue
Top-seed Pitt fended off No. 3 Purdue in four sets and clinched a spot in the program’s fifth-consecutive Final Four.
The Boilermakers unleashed a talented attacking duo and ferocious defensive effort in Saturday’s Regional Final which helped them become the first team to claim a set victory over the Panthers since the NCAA Tournament started, but it was not enough as Pitt won the match 3-1.
Despite the valiant effort to contain Olivia Babcock as the Boilermakers combined for 11 blocks, the reigning AVCA Player of the Year proved too much as she totaled a match-high 23 kills, albeit the duo of Akasha Anderson (20) and Kenna Wollard (15) did everything they could for Purdue as they combined for 35 kills.
Then, when the Boilermakers’ pressure did slow down Babcock, Marina Pezelj stepped up in a big way with a double-double on 14 kills and 12 digs. The Panthers’ top setter, Brooke Mosher, played an all-around dominant match with 47 assists, four kills, seven digs and three aces, including back-to back aces to close the match out.
Despite being out-blocked in the match and held to a .167 hitting percentage in the third set, the Panthers and Babcock would not be denied a spot in the National Semifinals.
Purdue showed the fight that it would provide Pitt from the jump as the Boilermakers used an early 4-1 run to establish a 9-6 lead in the first set. A big reason for the impressive start was the Boilermakers’ early defensive intensity towards the side of Babcock, who recorded just one kill on her first six swings.
While they were able to limit her early, Babcock came alive midway through the first set as her next four kills helped fuel a 9-3 run for the Panthers and put them ahead of the Boilermakers, 15-12.
The two teams went onto trade the set’s next 10 points which brought the score to 19-18 and forced Dan Fisher to call a timeout. The Panthers responded well as they went on a small 3-1 run after time stoppage which pressured the Boilermakers into a timeout.
The Boilermakers answered with an Anderson kill following the timeout but Babcock answered right back with one of her own. That is how the set wrapped up, with the Panthers trading points with the Boilermakers before Babcock’s ninth kill of the set capped off the 25-22 win.
Pitt jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second set but Purdue used a 3-0 run to get right back into it before the momentum fully shifted into the Panthers’ favor, though the Boilermakers remained behind over the next handful of points.
The Panthers extended their lead later in the set with a 3-0 run but Purdue again fought back and used a 6-1 run to jump ahead of Pitt at 14-13 which forced a timeout. The timeout helped as the Panthers matched with their own 6-1 run.
Just like in the first set, the sizable lead allowed the Panthers to just trade points with the Boilermakers over the remainder of the set as Pitt went up 2-0 in the match behind the 25-21 set win.
Purdue entered the third set with nothing to lose, and it showed as the Boilermakers played a lot more free on both their attacks and defensive stops. The free flow allowed multiple defenders to cheat towards Babcock and on the other side, the Boilermakers’ setters just feed Anderson who totaled six kills in the third set.
The Boilermakers immediately jumped out to a commanding 6-3 lead and later grew their lead to 12-8 thanks to a 4-0 run that featured three blocks. Purdue totaled seven of its 11 blocks in the third set.
Pitt did not go away easily though as two kills from Blaire Bayless, one from Sophia Gregoire and another from Mosher brought the Panthers back to within one. The Panthers remained down by just one or two points over the next couple of serves before a 4-1 run tied things up at 19-19.
Despite the late push back from the Panthers, the Boilermakers went into fight-or-flight mode and rattled off a 5-1 run behind three-straight kills from Anderson to claim a 24-20 lead, before a kill from Wollard ended the set at 25-22.
Even though Purdue handed Pitt its first set loss of the entire tournament, it almost looked like the Panthers needed a wake-up call as the team looked refocused heading into the fourth set.
Mosher started the set with an ace before a pair of errors and another kill by Anderson gave the Boilermakers a small, temporary lead at 3-2. It was temporary as the Panthers used a 3-0 run, with two kills from Pezelj, to re-claim the lead which they never gave back.
Another 3-0 run later in the set pushed the Panthers’ lead to 9-5 but the Boilermakers were not going down without a fight as they used a 5-1 run to cut the deficit to just one.
The Panthers stars, Babcock and Bre Kelley, were not going to let it be that close again as Kelley scored on two-straight attacks and Babcock followed her up with another kills.
The Panthers turned the 3-0 run into a 5-1 scoring stretch that forced the Boilermakers into their last timeout with the score 16-12. The Boilermakers’ timeout briefly halted the Panthers’ prowl as they went on a 4-1 run to make the score 18-15.
Despite the late fight, two kills from Bayless, two attacking errors by the Boilermakers and back-to-back aces from Mosher wrapped up the 25-17 set win, and 3-1 match win.
Now that Pitt clinched its spot in the National Semifinals for the fifth year in a row, the Panthers turn their attention to tomorrow’s matchup between No. 3 Texas A&M and No. 1 Nebraska, as they will play the winner of those two teams for a chance in the National Championship.
