It’s hard after watching that match not to be excited about the future of Pitt volleyball.
Tory Stafford won the MVP. The vote could not have been close. Early in the match, she was defeating one on one blocks with ease. Later they tried to double her at every opportunity. She was able to split the block so score pretty consistently. She scored from the left side, ftom the right side and from the back row. Her ability to hit ftom the back row is a big positive as that has been lacking in the offense.
Olivia Babcock had a few kills but she had double digit blocks. She will be Pitt’s next Serena Gray — a middle blocker who scores on a high percentage of her hitting attempts.
Blaire Bayless hardly played in the first set, but she got more PT as the match went on. She was the most effective server on the Phantoms. She has a hard low serve that dips suddenly. She had 3 or 4 nice runs serving. She also had consecutive kills from the right side to win the third set for her team. They didn’t set her that much but she was effective when they did.
Nebraska actually had 5 players in the match. I assume they are giving a lot of half scholarships. It’s one of the cheapest state schools to attend as an out of state student, and they recruited players from Michigan, North Carolina, South Dakota and Colorado. Louisville had one player and she looked like a younger clone of one of the seniors they are losing.
Lots of talk on the volley talk forum about where the OH who entered the portal from Florida will go. None of it mentioned Pitt.
