Thought Olivia Babcock was scary before? Add back-row defense.

What do you do when you win National Player of the Year as a sophomore, play for the U.S. national team in the summer before your junior year, and generally be regarded as the best all-around player at your position?

Well, if you're Olivia Babcock, you work on your floor defense. And you ask your head coach Dan Fisher to hit balls at you every day in the practice gym.

"I just have been really focused on it. Fish actually told me I was too hyper-focused on it at one point," Babcock said in Sunday's post-match presser. "I feel like I was helping, contributing to the team's success, but I definitely could have contributed more in the back row and that was just something I really wanted to work on."

Contributions accomplished. On Sunday, Babcock collected a career-high 17 digs to go along with her season-high 29 kills in a four-set home victory over SMU. Matter of fact, she has recorded double-digit digs in each of the last four matches in which she saw full playing time.

"It's having the mindset that if you touch it, you dig it," Babcock said. "I feel like I didn't always have that mindset, but now I'm very confident that if the ball comes to me, I am able to get a touch and get it up."

The match at the Petersen Events Center was Olivia Babcock at her most dominant – on ESPN, no less! After some early struggles ("I feel like I was getting really frustrated with my swinging," she said), Babcock turned it on in Set 3 – a span of seven Pitt points were all Babcock kills, en route to her recording 10 out of 11 Pitt's kills through the heart of that set.

Fisher's advice to his star was to "keep jumping high and taking big rips," and setter Brooke Mosher was happy to set the hot hand.

"When she's streaking, she's streaking so it's pretty easy to keep giving her the ball," Mosher said.

Though Pitt's serving errors sunk Babcock's 13-kill third set (with zero errors), she followed it up with a 10-kill fourth set that clinched Pitt's 10th straight victory.

I went to this match with fellow members of Dancing Gnome Run Club, many of whom were attending their first Pitt Volleyball home match. It will not shock you to learn that they were quickly able to clock Babcock as the best player on the floor. During her run of connecting on sharp-angled swings away from double-blocks, from the front row or the back, she was described as a "cheat code" multiple times.

'Just keep giving it to her' was a common sentiment – and the Panthers did.

It was also a match that, even in the close-loss 3rd set, I never felt was destined to slip away from Pitt's grasp. That's largely a credit to Babcock's ability to take over the game when called upon.

29 kills on .439 hitting with 17 digs against the nation's #11 team? That's the kind of stat line that puts you back in the conversation for National Player of the Year. Of course Babcock wants more than the individual honors, and digging out opposing attacks to keep rallies going is just what Pitt could use to pull out tough matches in the months ahead.

Bayless Becoming Go-To Option

It wasn't all Olivia Babcock on Sunday (as much as my previous 500 words might suggest otherwise!) to pull off a season sweep of SMU in the span of four days.

So let's acknowledge Blaire Bayless – stepping up against something of a hometown team for the Plano, Texas native. She collected double-digit kills in both victories this past week, did some six-rotation work at times, and has generally established herself as a go-to hitter when Pitt needs a kill from the left side.

"Clearly, she's someone that we really put a lot of trust in," Babcock said of Bayless. "A few years ago, I feel like she might not have been confident enough to step into this role, but it's very clear that she wants this role and she's going to take advantage of her opportunities. It's really refreshing to see."

Bayless is jumping higher. She's swinging harder. And she's raised her hitting percentage from .158 during an error-plagued 2024 campaign to .295 so far this season.

Bayless no doubt benefited from international reps this summer, winning a Pan-Am Cup gold medal with the U21 national team. Now she has brought that confidence back to the 'Burgh, with positive results in this first half of the season.

Big On The Block

One sensation I started to have while watching Sunday's match from section 112 of the Pete is that had the look – at times – like a men's volleyball match.

Big serves. Bigger swings. A whole lot of first-ball sideout wins by the receiving team. But when you're able to get your block assembled, that was pretty much your best chance to win the point while on serve.

SMU brings a lot of power to their game as well, and a big reason Pitt won is because the Panthers were able to hold the Mustangs' best hitters Malaya Jones (14 kills, 8 errors) and Jadyn Livings (14 kills, 7 errors) under .200 hitting each with tight defense.

It was a much better result than in Wednesday's five-set match, in which Jones totaled 23 kills on .422 hitting.

"After Wednesday's game, we just weren't really that satisfied with how our block was set up and we just weren't getting as many touches as we'd like," Babcock said. "So I feel like for the past few days that's really been a good focus, and I think it clearly reflected, because our outsides were getting a lot of blocks. And if they weren't getting a block, they were definitely getting a good touch."

Pitt will continue to bring a scary block through ACC play, led by Bre Kelley and Ryla Jones and supplemented on the pins by Babcock (6'4), Bayless (6'2), and Dagmar Mourits (listed at 6'2 but almost shoulders up to Babcock). And you've got Mosher performing better on the block than most other setters. At last check, Pitt's 2.73 blocks per set was 12th among Power 4 teams – a reflection of their strength in the front row.