If familiarity breeds contempt, the Pitt women’s volleyball team is masking it well.

As the No. 1 Panthers get set to face No. 1 Louisville in Louisville for tonight’s first match of the 2024 Final Four, Dan Fisher and his group are addressing the Cardinals respectfully.

“From my end, it's nothing but respect,” Fisher said Wednesday. “And I do agree that, you know, playing against great teams makes you better and exposes you for stuff you don't see in your own practice gym or when you're playing a weaker opponent.

“And so even though we've won both games, there's been things we've learned from those that really they made us uncomfortable in certain areas. So I think the rivalry is probably a little bit more for the fans, but the competition has definitely made us both better.”

Pitt and Louisville are no strangers - this season or in the recent past. The Cardinals hold a 20-16 advantage in the all-time series, but since the two teams started meeting as ACC foes in 2014, the Panthers have gotten the better of Louisville, posting a 12-8 record in the last 20 matches.

Of course, some of those matches have been more significant than others. Pitt and Louisville have met in the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons, with the Cardinals knocking the Panthers out of the Final Four two years and Pitt returning the favor with the win in the Elite Eight last year.

In the last four seasons, the two teams have an even split of their 10 matches - each has a 5-5 record - and they are each 1-1 in postseason meetings.

Which means there’s a whole lot of intrigue behind tonight’s match.

"Well, let's just start by saying we're very fortunate to play them so many times throughout the year,” senior setter Rachel Fairbanks said Wednesday. “We have immense respect for them, for the coaching staff, all the players. And I just think we make them better, they make us better. So the opportunity of playing them multiple times in one season is good preparation for big moments like this.”

“I would also say it's nice that we're here and we've played against them three weeks ago in this arena,” sophomore Torrey Stafford added. “So it's nice that we have the opportunity to just kind of play them again in this big stage. But we've been here before. It's our second home.”

Stafford may view the KFC Yum! Center as a “second home,” but Pitt’s success facing the Cardinals on the road is relatively new this season. Prior to the Panthers’ 3-1 win over the Cardinals in late November, Pitt hadn’t won in Louisville since 2019, losing three straight.

That made this year’s win a special one. But that win also completed a season sweep, and one of the oldest adages about sports is that it’s never easy to beat a team three times in a single season.

Adages operate in generalities, though, and Pitt’s players are thinking a little more specifically about tonight’s match.

“I mean, I think that it's hard to beat Louisville. Period,” Stafford said. “I mean, they're a good team. They know us. And we know them. So I feel like, like I said before, I feel like we have an advantage of like being able to play in this arena three weeks ago and coming out on top. So I feel like it's really up to just like having fun and competing, and I feel like when we have fun and compete, we can win everything.”

Pitt has certainly been winning a lot this season, following a 29-1 regular season with four wins - including three sweeps - in the Tournament so far. The Panthers feature a rather sizable core of some of the best players in the sport, led by ACC Player of the Year and National Player of the Year finalist Olivia Babcock, who, along with Fairbanks and Stafford was named a first-team All-American.

Of course, Louisville has had plenty of success itself. The Cardinals went 29-5 this season, with Pitt handing them two of their losses and the two other Final Four teams - Penn State and Nebraska - accounting for two more (the fifth loss came at Stanford in the regular-season finale).

Libero Elena Scott represents Louisville on the AVCA All-America first team.

But while the Cardinals finished the regular season on a two-game losing streak, they rounded into form in the Tournament, sweeping Chicago State, surviving a five-set match against Northern Iowa, sweeping Purdue and then exacting revenge on Stanford with a 3-1 win in the Elite Eight.

“I feel like ever since the last time we played each other, I mean, it's just been a bunch of tournament games, so we've all played a lot of really hard competition,” Babcock said Wednesday. “And, you know, we always talk about the idea of streaking, and technically to get here, you have to be streaking wins, so it seems like both of us are at the peak of our game, which I think is just going to be fun.

“I feel like all the little things are clicking for both teams. And yeah, I think it's just going to be a really hard match because we're both the best at this point.”

Babcock certainly has a case for being the best. In Pitt’s four Tournament wins so far, she has recorded 69 kills, 34 digs, 12 blocks and five aces; she was named the MVP of the Pittsburgh regional for that performance, and her season stat line against Louisville might be even more impressive:

In two wins over the Cardinals, she recorded 45 kills, 12 digs and nine blocks.

Stafford and Fairbanks have put up big numbers, too. Stafford had 32 kills in the two previous Louisville matches and 44 kills in the first four NCAA Tournament matches, while Fairbanks recorded 93 assists against the Cardinals and 154 in the four Tournament matches.

All three are playing at a very high level right now, and Babcock and Stafford come into tonight’s match with something they didn’t have when they reached the Final Four last season:

Experience.

While Fairbanks has been a part of Pitt’s three previous trips to the Final Four, Babcock and Stafford were freshmen last season. Talent rules, of course, but knowing what to expect in these situations can be a huge benefit as well.

“I feel like the difference between last year and this year - I mean, last year, everyone tries to prepare you for it, but when you actually get there, you're still overwhelmed, it's all still new to you, so you're kind of distracted by all the outside noise,” Babcock said.

“But I feel like this year we've really worked on just channeling it and staying in our three-foot world, and I feel like that's helped us have success. I mean, at this point, we're no longer new to this, so we kind of just we know how all the outside noise is going to go. So I think it's going to make it a lot easier to focus on just our team and our goal right now.”

“Every single year adds a year of experience under my belt,” Fairbanks said. “I think me along with the older players on the team are used to high-pressure situations like this. You know, pressure is a privilege. So we love being in situations like this and we're more prepared. We're ready. For all of the players.”

First serve tonight is at 6:30 pm. The match will be broadcast on ESPN.