Pitt's NCAA Tournament run has come to an end with a 3-2 (25-20, 25-21, 16-25, 24-26, 9-15) loss to No. 6 Washington at the CHI Health Center Arena in Omaha. The Panthers' season ends in the Regional Final round, one game shy of playing in volleyball's version of the ''Final 4'. The Panthers opened with victories in the first two sets, but the Huskies won the remaining three to advance to the national semifinal round that is set to be played tomorrow.
“We’ve been kind of playing with an underdog mentality really this whole year, we had that for the first two sets and lost it," Pitt head coach Dan Fisher said following the match. "We were close in the fourth and it could have gone either way. It would have been nice to get that one, but it wasn’t meant to be and we’ll be better for it.”
The Panthers had a 15-game winning streak snapped on Monday, as Pitt's historic season ends with a 19-5 overall record. The program set a number of milestones, including advancing out of the second round for the first time in program history. The team has now made the NCAA Tournament for five straight seasons and have won the ACC three times during that stretch. Pitt opened the NCAA Tournament with wins over Long Island University (3-0), Utah (3-0), and Minnesota (3-2), before falling to the Huskies today.
The Panthers and Huskies both played five-set matches on Sunday, and Washington appeared a bit slow out of the gates, and Pitt took full advantage. Pitt mounted leads of 15-10 and 20-12, but the Huskies did push late in the first set and cut it to 22-19. A challenge by Fisher slowed down the Huskies push and reversed a point. The Panthers then finished strong as Chinaza Ndee's kill gave Pitt the win in the first set. Ndee went over the 1,000-kill mark for her career, as she finished with 16 on the day.
Pitt once again looked to be in complete control in the second set. Pitt got out to leads of 8-4 early, than a larger one at 19-12 later on in the match. The Huskies got it to within 23-21 eventually, but a pair of kills by junior Sabrina Starks gave Pitt the set by a score of 25-21.
Things changed dramatically from there, as Washington commanded the third set from start to finish. The Panthers looked out of sorts, especially on offense, and the Huskies responded to having their backs up against the wall with a set victory. Washington won 25-16, to cut Pitt's lead for the match down to 2-1.
“With the exception of that run in the fourth, we got up two and we were just waiting for them to lose it," Fisher said of what changed after the first two sets. "We went away a little bit from what got us here, just playing aggressive volleyball.”
The fourth set was perhaps one of the more highly contested ones in the entire tournament. Pitt had to battle back from being down 17-12. The Panthers stormed to take the lead at 21-20 on a kill by Valeria Vazquez Gomez.
It was back and forth from there in the highly contested set and a pair of challenges went against the Panthers to change the landscape of the match. It had appeared Pitt had taken a 25-24 lead and would be going for match point, but the Panthers were called for touching the net, and it reversed the score in favor of Washington and the Huskies took advantage. Washington took the set 26-24.
“I think the calls were ultimately correct, like I don’t think that they got it wrong," Ndee said of the challenges in the fourth set. "Obviously you don’t want to lose on a call, you want to lose playing volleyball. It was just a tough draw and we fought until the end."
The Huskies came out strong in the final set. Pitt tied it at 1, but the Huskies grabbed the lead and never looked back. Washington built an early 7-2 lead en route to a 15-9 victory to advance to the National Semifinal tomorrow, opposite the winner of the Kentucky and Purdue match that is set for later this evening.
