Fwd: FWD: Fwd: Let's Go See Pitt Volleyball In the NCAA Tournament!
Not many teams get the chance to host the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, and Pitt has that opportunity yet again.
If you're so inclined, please forward this to a friend or family member with whom you would like to attend the Sweet 16 (Thursday at 7:00 PM, Petersen Events Center) or the Elite 8 (Saturday at either 5 PM or 7:30 PM, also at the Pete).
Hello! If you are receiving this message, it's because the sender wants to invite you to go with him or her to the NCAA Volleyball Tournament.
Never been to a college volleyball match before? No problem. It's best three sets out of five. Each set is first to 25, win by two – then first to 15, win by two if they go to a 5th set. Maybe you learned in gym class that you have to be serving to score, but they don't do that anymore.
Yes, each team has players wearing the opposite jersey. They're called liberos, and you can Google it, but we have to move on.
By now you've heard that Pitt Volleyball is great. True! Let your friend recite all of the stats, the four straight Final Fours and all that.
The important thing here is that Pitt finished this season in the Top 4 in the nation, and therefore gets to host the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 matches (or in NCAA parlance: Regional Semifinal and Regional Final). It's a huge advantage, basically tripling Pitt's odds of advancing to another Final Four.
This is usually something that schools like Texas get to do year in and year out, so it's impressive that Pitt has managed to pull it off four of the last five seasons.
Now usually this hosting privilege has come with a raw deal: Pitt playing in the middle of the afternoon on Thursday in the Sweet 16. We love that ESPN puts these matches on national TV, but because Pitt is the nouveau riche, they're usually stuck with the mid-afternoon start times while schools like Nebraska get the primetime slots. To wit:
- 2021: Thursday, 2:00 PM vs. Kansas
- 2022: Thursday, 2:32 PM vs. Florida (in Madison, Wisconsin)
- 2023: Thursday, 3:16 PM vs. Washington State
- 2024: Thursday, 3:31 PM vs. Oregon
This time it's different! Maybe ESPN felt bad for Pitt, maybe it wants to showcase superstar reigning National Player of the Year Olivia Babcock, or maybe the opponent Minnesota is a bigger ratings draw than I thought. In any event, Pitt's finally getting primetime billing with a 7:00 PM start time. You're done for the day by 7:00, right? Right.
The Key Players
Now, Babcock. I could fill dozens of lines with her accomplishments, but her official Pitt bio pretty much does that already. Long story of accolades short: this is an athlete you want to see in person. Watch her leap from the behind the 10-foot line and smash the ball into the floor, then combine with fellow Tall-American (that's my own creation) and ACC Defensive Player of the Year Bre Kelley to block some fool into next week.
Yes, you can see all of that on TV, but experiencing it in-person is the way to go. It's like hockey that way. There's a palpable energy when you know the ball is headed Babcock's way and the defenders are not going to stop her. Watch the way she finds the open seams and methodically adds up the kills – a Pitt-record 582 of them so far this season.
James Santelli
Get ready too for Brooke Mosher's *boom* of a jump topspin serve, Blaire Bayless snapping off kills from the left pin, freshman Abbey Emch getting physical on the block, Mallorie Meyer coming up with a clutch serving run... you'll have your favorites soon enough.
Home Court Help on the Margins
It's important that you cheer loudly, because this is a team that has fed off its home court advantage – going 16-0 in matches played in the City of Pittsburgh. All four losses of the team's losses this season have come away from home. Seven opponents have stretched Pitt to five sets this year, and all of those instances were on the road.
And on Saturday, while the Panthers swept their 2nd-round foe Michigan at the Pete, it wasn't easy. The Panthers trailed 17-13 in the opening set before making their way back and squeaking by with a 25-23 win. They snuffed out a late Michigan comeback effort in the 2nd to win 25-23 again, then finally took the match 25-18.
"I thought we were just a little too tense. You know, we made a few attack errors, let a few kind of miscommunications happen," coach Dan Fisher said after Saturday's win. "But we kind of just hung in there, and we've done that all year long."
Fisher? Yes, he's the very tall man on the sidelines. Your buddy can tell you more, but he has basically been the architect of all this Pitt Volleyball success.
The only reason Pitt has any shot at a title this season (besides Babcock, of course) is its development of better clutch play late in sets, especially in the huge match right before Thanksgiving to sweep rival Louisville – you should've been there for that one too, but I'll forgive and forget.
On Thursday night, Minnesota is a team fully capable of taking Pitt to five sets. It's a high-pedigree program (this is the Gophers' 9th time in the Sweet 16 since 2015) led by senior outside hitter Julia Hanson, a unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten First Team.
If Pitt advances, they'll likely face an underrated SMU squad – the #5 overall team to Pitt's #4. The Panthers needed all five sets to beat the Mustangs in Dallas, so your support may needed to push Pitt over the top and back into the Final Four. Be on the lookout for all-ACC first-team right side hitter Malaya Jones.
Growth of the Game
When you join your friend Thursday night or Saturday evening for one of these matches, you'll be joining a fanbase that is still on the rise here in Pittsburgh. The 10 largest home crowds in Pitt Volleyball's history have all come in the last 25 months:
- 11,800 / Sept. 18, 2024 vs. Penn State
- 11,309 / Oct. 25, 2024 vs. Louisville
- 9,525 / Dec. 14, 2024 vs. Kentucky
- 8,865 / Nov. 18, 2023 vs. Louisville
- 7,928 / Nov. 26, 2025 vs. Louisville
- 6,647 / Dec. 7, 2024 vs. Oklahoma
- 6,139 / Aug. 31, 2025 vs. TCU at PPG Paints Arena
- 5,943 / Dec. 6, 2024 vs. Morehead State
- 5,806 / Sept. 28, 2025 vs. SMU
- 5,382 / Sept. 1, 2025 vs. Arizona State at PPG Paints Arena
It's been so phenomenal to see this growing attendance, and it mostly happens because of word-of-mouth, like this email forward from your friend. Sure, Olivia Babcock gets the occasional TV profile and Pitt gets lucky with a pre-football-season TV placement to draw half-a-million viewers. But it's football and men's hoops that still get the vast majority of the athletic department's marketing and advertising muscle.
Yes, the lower-level seats are $35 for these rounds of the tournament, and that is steeper than in past years. But it's not like the basketball team is doing much to draw you in to purchase this season.
It'll be worth it. I bought into this team back when the flex season pass (15 tickets to use over the 15 home games) was only $45, and it has been the best decision I've ever made as a sports fan. Whether you stick around for one match or decide to hop on to the season-ticket waitlist for the new Victory Heights arena that you'll see next door to the Pete, we're glad to have you on the ever-growing Pitt Volleyball bandwagon.
