Pitt women's volleyball bows out of NCAA Tournament in 5-set semifinal loss to Louisville

If a team loses in the Final Four, it first needed to conquer the difficult task of getting there.

The Pitt women’s volleyball players — winners of 31 of their 35 matches this season — were trying mightily to wrap their minds around that reality early Friday morning after a second loss in two seasons in an NCAA Tournament semifinal.

Louisville defeated Pitt in five sets (25-18, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-2) to become the first ACC team to reach the national championship match. The Cardinals will play Texas, a four-set victor against San Diego, on Saturday night.

Pitt captain Chiamaka Nwokolo was sad and proud at the same time.

“Our first stump was making it past the Sweet 16 and now our new trial and error is making it past the Final Four,” she said. “That’s not a terrible problem to have. We’re struggling to have perspective right now, but we do have some pride about what we did this year and last year.”

The dramatic match was tightly contested for four sets — until Louisville (31-2) dominated the final one. Pitt recovered from previous deficits, but was unable to handle the Cardinals’ defensive efforts when it counted most.

“We weren’t quite up to our standards offensively,” coach Dan Fisher said. “Our passing was streaky. So was theirs.”

When asked about the fifth set, he said, “It starts with our passing game, and we’re a team that takes big rips. But when you’re constantly swinging from 20 feet off the net, it’s a challenge. They got a few in the fifth, and it didn’t go our way.”

Actually, Louisville was in control of the fourth set and appeared on its way to the national championship match at that point. But after the Cardinals took a 16-10 lead, Pitt kept chipping away, employing effective defensive play.

Pitt scored the final three points of the set, closing with a 15-6 run to win, 25-22.

“I was just so proud of our heart in the fourth set. We just hung in there and found a way to win,” Fisher said.

But the Panthers couldn’t carry their momentum into the fifth set.

“Louisville had a very aggressive/risky serving plan,” Fisher said. “It definitely worked in the fifth set. It will be interesting to see if that works against Texas.”

Pitt also fell behind in the first set, 6-0, before rallying to force two ties. But the Panthers never took the lead.

Pitt grabbed an early advantage in the second set when Louisville’s Amaya Tillman appeared to give her team a 5-4 lead, but the ball stayed on her hand too long and a lift was called against the Cardinals.

After that, the Panthers never lost the lead, played solid defense and went on to win, 25-23. Four times late in the set, Louisville trimmed the lead to one point, the last time at 24-23, but Serena Gray’s kill finished off Louisville with the decisive point.

“We got back to playing our volleyball, didn’t make many attacking errors,” Fisher told ESPN after the second set. “We came out a little jittery and made too many errors in the first set.”

At the end of the night, Fisher praised his team for its toughness.

“It’s certainly better to start out with a lead, and falling behind didn’t help us. We showed a lot of heart and a lot of ability to reset when things didn’t go our way.”

The Cardinals recorded 19 blocks and 10 service aces while graduate student, All-American and ACC Player of the Year Claire Chaussee had 25 kills and a .429 hitting percentage.

For Pitt, Rachel Fairbanks collected 29 assists and eight each of kills and digs. Courtney Buzzerio had 13 kills and Gray 10.

Buzzerio, a transfer from Iowa, was grateful for her only season at Pitt.

“I’ve learned so much volleyball-wise about myself and just volleyball in general,” she said, “that, I think, I’ve grown as a player to, hopefully, have a nice career professionally. I guess that starts now.”