Pitt Volleyball - 6:30 Tonight
- Thread starter TheSpecialSauce
- Start date
I don't care about that. But we shouldn't have been on their side of the bracket as the overall number one seed. We shouldn't have had to deal with that possibility until the Final.
I will preface this by saying I know nothing about volleyball. But I watched Nebraska play Wisconsin for about 45 seconds and came away thinking they might be better than Pitt. So last night stings a lot more knowing that they lost. Cause Pitt may have very well won it all, as they swept Penn State this season.
In the last rankings I saw Pitt was one, Louisville was four. That gets you placed on the same side.
That same Nebraska team lost to the Penn State team Pitt steamrolled in the regular season 3 sets to 1. Nebraska's only other loss in the regular season loss was a 3 sets to none loss to the SMU team Pitt was 1-1 against in the regular season.
Louisville barely made it out of the 2nd round vs 8th seeded Northern Iowa winning in 5 sets with Northern Iowa blowing match point in the 5th set on service errors 4 in a times row.
IMO this Pitt team not winning the NCAA championship is simular to the 1980 football team not winning the national championship. Will probably go down as one of the all time great teams to not win it all.
Well then I am glad I qualified that by saying I know nothing about volleyball, lol.
To be honest, I won't watch another game until if and when Pitt is in the final four next time. And I'm glad I'm not emotionally invested in that sport, because it's very stressful.
We can carry this out. PSU swept the same Louisville team.
Last night was 2 great matches. I was rooting for Pitt too as I wanted all PA final.
That said volleyball isn’t like football or even basketball. Especially when teams are close. 1-2 hot players can make a difference. I’ve been to many tournaments thanks to daughter playing. I’ve seen 1 team get swept in pool play only to kill the same team in bracket play.
Last night was 2 great matches. I was rooting for Pitt too as I wanted all PA final.
That said volleyball isn’t like football or even basketball. Especially when teams are close. 1-2 hot players can make a difference. I’ve been to many tournaments thanks to daughter playing. I’ve seen 1 team get swept in pool play only to kill the same team in bracket play.
Agreed. But it happens a lot in sports. It’s really hard to beat a really good team like Louisville three times especially with the third time being on their home court.
Sorry but I never attended Penn State
I born, raised, and graduated in Georgia so I’m a Tech alumnus
Spent 25 in Philadelphia area working for Lockheed Martin so my kids attended in State Universities.
Daughter is dentist graduate from Pittsburgh
Son is a pharmacist graduate of Temple
We live now in Atlanta
Well we swept Lville during regular season as well.
We’ll be back but last night sucked …
My wife won a WPIAL championship only to lose in the PIAA semis to the team they beat in the WPIAL finals, and that team went on to be state champs. It definitely happens.
Sucks to lose but geez, some of you guys are dramatic. Louisville played well and showed a couple of wrinkles that they haven't used all season. DeBeer outplayed Babcock? LOL, no. Babcock is just on another planet offensively. Stafford was better than DeBeer. Pitt's defense was bad? 64 digs is a lot.
Louisville won that game because they made a pretty big adjustment on offense with how they were running their middles to open things up a little for the outsides. Haven't done that all year. Yes, it got a little ugly in that last set because Louisville just caught fire. You just don't see teams go off like that and yes, it does affect you when the game really depends on momentum.
Both "underdogs" won last night. If you think Pitt's loss was disappointing, I can't even imagine the meltdown Nebraska's fan base is having. They were celebrating on the court before a legit challenge card continued the game at the end of the fourth set. I expect volleyball to continue to become more competitive. This year's season had some wild twists. But I do think Fischer will keep this team at the top. He has a 2026, national HS player of the year finalist, committed to the program and some other really talented players that will be coming into the program. There will be a championship.
Louisville won that game because they made a pretty big adjustment on offense with how they were running their middles to open things up a little for the outsides. Haven't done that all year. Yes, it got a little ugly in that last set because Louisville just caught fire. You just don't see teams go off like that and yes, it does affect you when the game really depends on momentum.
Both "underdogs" won last night. If you think Pitt's loss was disappointing, I can't even imagine the meltdown Nebraska's fan base is having. They were celebrating on the court before a legit challenge card continued the game at the end of the fourth set. I expect volleyball to continue to become more competitive. This year's season had some wild twists. But I do think Fischer will keep this team at the top. He has a 2026, national HS player of the year finalist, committed to the program and some other really talented players that will be coming into the program. There will be a championship.
I had Nebraska winning it all. For as good as Pitt is I didn't think Nebraska was going to be denied this year. Guess someone forgot to tell Penn State.
Love the optimism. Lets hope.
I saw he has the #1 recruiting class coming in. Is that correct?
I don't know. I really don't lean too heavily on volleyball recruiting services and their musings. Fischer runs thing a little differently than many of the other top programs so he's looking for girls that can play with tempo. But, his 2026 class is well regarded. Ayanna Watson is a national HS player of the year finalist. I think with the new roster rules, the 2025 class is very small but still very good. Not sure if he's done any work in the transfer portal but he's mostly been using it to fill gaps.
I made the comment about defense, and it just seemed like Louisville's was better throughout the match. I'm no volleyball expert, but blocks are defense too. Also, the discrepancy in aces were a big deal. They were great getting to and returning Babcock's serve.
Again, it's likely I have no idea what I'm talking about. Just seemed to me that Louisville was much better on defense, while Pitt was the better offensive team.
I would point out that in the first set the Pitt defense was as good as Louisville and playing back row better than any other set I'd seen this year, then they reverted to their norm, not as bad as they were playing during the first rounds of the tourney but closer and then worse by far than all year in that 4th
all those saying the girls gave up imo don't understand the effects of momentum in the ultimate team game that VB is, I do not think they "gave up", I think they mentally fell apart and could not pull it back together
it happens in sports and is rough to see and hard to reverse
I generally agree with what you said but I do think when you factor in who came up bigger when their team needed them it was Debeer va Babcock
There’s no doubt I. Terms of overlap stats and talent Babcock is better and had better stats in the match. But Babcock is high risk high reward. Her serve is huge but she gives up a ton of points as well. Debeer rarely misses a serve and is very efficient in spikes
I’m no volleyball expert but it seemed to
Me she was the difference in the game when it really mattered
I’m not taking anything away from Babcock I. Saying that either She’s an incredible talent and is a major reason why Pitt is as good as they were
Moving ahead it’s going to be awful hard to replace Fairbanks next year
Wait until Dan moves on and takes the National team job next year, #5 will be transfering out and Pitt is back to where it used to be.
Nation team already signed their coach and it is not Fish.
DeBeer's hitting percentage was .263 while Babcock's was .385, so Babcock wasn't just more efficient in spikes, she was a lot more efficient.
We got into the red zone twice (sets 2 & 3) and came away with a loss in each one. That was so uncharacteristic of our team
Yeah I guess the stats didn’t back up what I said but it just seemed in the critical stretches of games 2 and 3 Debeer was making every critical point and Babcock was either getting blocked or hitting it out.
Thats exactly my point. They should have seeded differently. They do it all the time in CBB tournament unless it’s Pitt where they constantly screw us as well
That was my observation as well. Babcock was amazing in set 1. She got to 15 kills really fast. But she wasn't as good in the remaining sets--still good, but not as good. Stafford wasn't anything close to how she played early after she tweaked her ankle. Pitt has done this in the final four before, where we seem to peak in early sets and don't have explosiveness later. Maybe sweeping so many teams isn't good for Pitt to be ready to play their best later in a match?
It may appear somewhat idiotic to some but if I were Fish I'd plan for next year to go 4 sets in every regular season match
very likely will result in a few losses and it would take approaching a set with a plan to lose(yes I know idiotic, I said that already), but all that matters at this point is winning in December
ok, I'll shut up before I suggest the next level of stupid which is to plan to go 5 in every regular season match
very likely will result in a few losses and it would take approaching a set with a plan to lose(yes I know idiotic, I said that already), but all that matters at this point is winning in December
ok, I'll shut up before I suggest the next level of stupid which is to plan to go 5 in every regular season match
Someone not on their home court. A lower seed shouldn't have a home advantage unless it's unavoidable. And it was unavoidable until the national championship game this year.
And who may that be?
Karch Karily is now coaching the men's team and the talk Dan is next in line. There is a possibility Erin can get it and that is fact LOL
Louisville was a 4 seed. They were the lower seed regardless of who they played. It was unavoidable.
Home court? It’s volleyball. And school is out for Christmas. Would you have been happier today had Pitt lost to Penn State or Nebraska instead?
And yet somehow the arena was sold out before anyone even knew which teams would be playing.
But I get it, probably a lot of people trying to buy tickets to a Louisville basketball game and accidentally clicked on the wrong link, and then thought well, while I'm here....
And they were all lifelong Louisville Women’s Volleyball fans. Who would it have been more fair for Pitt to have played in the semifinals?
My work colleague, who has zero affiliation with Pitt and never lived in the Pittsburgh region, has two high school girls playing volleyball. The family of four paid $75 a ticket to drive up from Maryland to watch Pitt sweep a weak Duke team at the Fitz in early November. It is not just locals. Pitt has made a serious name for itself this year in volleyball communities, even with the loss in the Final Four.
Side effect, Pitt apparently is now on their radar for college.
Yes. If you have girls playing junior high volleyball you might find yourself going to college women’s volleyball games
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