PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s different now. It’s more than just a good story that the Pitt women’s volleyball team made it to the Final Four for a third straight season. This team is here to win it.
“My freshman year was the first Final Four and we were like ‘wow, we made it’,” said junior setter Rachel Fairbanks. “This year it’s like, we deserve to be here. We are not done yet.”
“When we first made it, it was like a ‘wow, we are in the Final Four’,” said senior middle blocker Chiamaka Nwokolo. “Now it’s like, ok, we have two games left.”
“The goal is to win a national championship and I feel like that’s where our whole team’s minds are right now.”
Head coach Dan Fisher has been the constant through it all. He is the builder of what has become one of the top volleyball programs in the nation, from very humble beginnings. He’s noticed the growth of volleyball and now the national semifinal comes with a lot of pomp and circumstance, but that’s not why Pitt is in Tampa Bay.
“This year the size of the arena is bigger,” Fisher said. “It feels like there is more media, more photoshoots. There are more greetings off the plane, at the hotel. There is always something they are shuffling us off to, and it’s all great stuff.”
“We came here to play volleyball.”
They will do so on Thursday night at 7p against the number one team in the country. Nebraska is 32-1 and played in front of over 92,000 in a game played in their football stadium earlier this year. Their program has won five national championships and is 14-0 all-time against Pitt including a win in the 2021 Final Four.
“We try to treat every opponent the same,” Fairbanks said. “Obviously every opponent is different, but we just focus on preparing really well and not letting all the outward noise get to us. Just focusing on us as a team and playing our best volleyball.”
While earning the right to host the first four rounds of the NCAA Tournament, it wasn’t an easy road for the Panthers particularly their Elite 8 match, coming back from two sets to none down to beat preseason ACC favorite and conference rival Louisville, the team that beat them in the Final Four last year. Fisher believes his 29-4 team is peaking at the right time.
“When I saw the bracket, I saw we had to play USC in the second round,” Fisher said. “I knew we had a tough draw, but the message to the team was ‘yeah, but if we get there we are going to be battle tested and ready’.”
The 11-year Pitt head coach said every season is a little different story, but what has remained true about the Panthers program is they train hard, don’t have selfish players and have a great team culture. And now they are as prepared as they ever have been for the biggest stage.
“Our team tends to play better the bigger the stage,” Nwokolo said. “We are very excited.”
“The bigger the stage, the better we perform,” said Fairbanks.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Fisher said of the matchup with Nebraska. “It’s going to be a memory that these girls are going to hold onto.”
But they aren’t satisfied with just A memory, they want THE memory.
All-Americans
Panthers had five players named All-American this year. Fairbanks and National Freshman of the Year Olivia Babcock on the First Team.
Freshman Torrey Stafford on the Third Team and Emma Monks and Emmy Klika were named Honorable Mention.