For the second time in seven days, Pitt and Syracuse squared off on Friday. But unlike the sweep last week, it took everything the Panthers had to escape with a 3-2 victory.
The Panthers didn’t have Kylee Levers this time around, who had started every match of the season. Levers, who didn’t play in the last two sets of Pitt’s match against American on Tuesday, spent the entire match on the sideline Friday. She wore her full uniform, but appeared to have some sort of wrap around her right calf.
Filling in for her teammate, freshman Rachel Fairbanks made the first start of her career against the Orange. Normally utilized for special serving situations, Fairbanks showed off her passing abilities with 27 assists on Friday, adding on two service aces.
A rusty start nearly cost Pitt the opening set in the two teams’ first meeting, and the Panthers made sure not to take it lightly this time around. Pitt held Syracuse’s highly-touted front line to just nine kills in the first game, coasting to a 25-17 set win.
Fisher leaned on his bench more in the second game, turning to junior middle blocker Chiamaka Nwokolo and sophomore outside hitters Valeria Vazquez Gomez and Cat Flood in multiple key moments. Nwokolo nabbed the final kill of the set, as Leketor Member Meneh’s serving run gave Pitt the game 25-18.
But for the rest of the night, Pitt met something it hadn’t faced in weeks: resistance. Since their 5-set loss to Louisville, the Panthers hadn’t dropped a single game, but the Orange changed that with a convincing late-match performance. And they gave the Panthers quite the scare in the process.
Orange stars Marina Markova and Polina Shemanova, second and fourth in the ACC for kills per set, respectively, came alive with their team against the wall. They amounted for over half of Syracuse’s kills for the night, and provided staunch defense against Pitt’s vaunted lineup of hitters.
Syracuse led nearly the entire third set, closing it out with Markova’s block on Chinaza Ndee. The Orange withstood seven kills in that game from Pitt senior Leketor Member-Meneh, who finished with a season-high 23 kills.
Injected with life in what initially appeared as another Pitt blowout victory, the Orange carried their momentum into the fourth game. The teams went back and forth with lengthy points, eventually reaching a tie at 22 points each.
Serena Gray’s service error gave Syracuse an edge, and Naomi Franco gave the Orange set point with a vicious kill. Elena Karakasi found a gap in the Panther defense for a set-winning ace immediately after.
The No. 3 team in the country suddenly found itself a set away from the wrong end of a conference-shaking upset. But the Panthers went to their seniors, who navigated them out of the rocky waters.
Tied 2-2 in the final game, Member-Meneh took control of the match, recording three consecutive kills. The run gave Pitt a lead it wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the night. Two more kills from Kayla Lund moments later put Pitt ahead 8-3.
Syracuse strung together a trio of points to cut the lead to two, but Pitt’s defense prevented the Orange from getting any closer. Markova’s attacking error ended the set 15-9, and Pitt survived the match 3-2.
The win improves the Panthers to 24-2, 13-2 in the ACC, with three regular season matches remaining. The team gets a week off before heading to Atlanta for a rematch with Georgia Tech, who handed Pitt its first loss of the season.
