Vintage Pitt Volleyball is Back

Well that looked good, didn't it?

Pitt Volleyball was back to its old tricks Wednesday night, sweeping #3 Kentucky in front of a national TV audience on ESPN.

You wanted to see Pitt with a killer instinct? You got it, as Pitt never trailed after getting to 17 points in each set. You wanted to see that Panthers offense clicking again? How about Brooke Mosher quarterbacking a .349 hitting percentage against one of the nation's best teams?

"Obviously Kentucky is a very good team," Olivia Babcock said to ESPN's Madison Fitzpatrick after the clean sweep on a neutral court in Fort Worth, Texas. "They're a very long-rally team, so towards the end we just really wanted to make sure that we were the ones winning those long rallies."

From long-rally wins to first-ball sideouts, it was platonic ideal of a Pitt offense: Babcock led the way totaling 15 kills on .306 hitting, followed by Dagmar Mourits with 13 kills in the finest match of her young college career and Blaire Bayless grabbing 9 kills with only 1 error (.400).

It's a full turnaround from the team that went 0-2 on the opening weekend, with losses in Lincoln to #1 Nebraska and now-#11 Florida.

"Obviously, Liv is our huge hitter right now, but we need as many offensive weapons as we can," Bayless told ESPN after the match in her home Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. "After those first two matches especially, I knew that's what the team needed me to do, so I just got into each game after that with the mentality that I need to put balls down. I need to be an option for my team."

Set the middles? That played a part too: Middle blockers Bre Kelley and Ryla Jones added 5 kills apiece (with zero, count 'em, zero errors) and helped Pitt out-block the Wildcats 9 to 4.5 on the night.

Back to the good ol' days

It only took 97 minutes from first serve to Olivia Babcock's coffin corner kill for Pitt to sweep Kentucky just like they did in the 2024 Elite Eight. Sorry to any ESPN producer who needed to fill time before the scheduled next match between Texas and Louisville (a five-set close one in favor of Texas).

Pitt hit .560 in the opener, setting the tone and then chipping away at Kentucky through the rest of the match. It was more than enough to earn Dan Fisher his 400th victory.

This is the Pitt Volleyball team we know – the program that is now 10-5 against Top 5 opponents since the start of the 2022 season. (James Franklin wishes he had those numbers.) It's a team that once again looks like it's ready to make a run to the Final Four – and beyond.

"The mission every season is the same: We want to win a National Championship. We want to make history with this program," Bayless said. "As long as we're focusing and within our six-foot world, we're going to take down some good teams and make a name for ourselves."

No knock on Kentucky: that's a damn good team. Eva Hudson (15 hills on .275 hitting) and Brooklyn DeLeye (14 kills on .297 hitting) remain the best outside hitter duo in the nation – no lead was safe with them firing bullets from the left side for the Wildcats. They helped Pitt out with 10 service errors, but clearly they're still a National Championship contender.

If you want to tell your friends what's been different about this Pitt team from a few weeks ago, start with grad transfer setter Brooke Mosher (39 assists, team-high 13 digs) finally looking comfortable in guiding a dynamic offense.

"Trust her so much. Every single day in the gym we're working," Babcock said. "It's really easy to hit with her because she's very much like, 'I want to be better for you. I'm going to put in the work,' and it's very clear she's doing the extra reps... I know it's going to click, and I feel like it clicked a lot this game."

ACC takes the Showdown over SEC

Kudos to ESPN for cobbling together these ACC and SEC teams – for the most part very evenly matched – for this week's made-for-TV event. And Pitt's now a draw! Whenever you can get the flagship ESPN spotlight on volleyball, you're doing the right things.

In the end, the ACC notched 9 wins to the SEC's 7, needing a wild comeback from the Cal Golden Bears to get the final advantage.

Honestly, I was hoping for more ACC victories (including from you, Louisville) to help Pitt's RPI long term, but c'est la volleyball. At the very least, SMU swept Texas A&M and North Carolina swept Florida to show the conference's strength toward the top.

If the middle tier of the conference can continue to develop a good reputation, there's a shot for the ACC establish itself as the second-strongest conference in the country, head and shoulders above the SEC. (No one's touching the Big Ten for its combination of strength and depth.)