#1 Pitt War Machine rolls over SMU behind Babcock's dominant evening
Panthers' pin hitter keeps the #15 SMU Mustangs in the stable
Sending my thoughts this morning to people living on Florida’s Gulf Coast. I know there are many Pittsburgh expats in the Tampa Bay region, watching the rain, winds and flooding from Hurricane Milton. Let’s hope for everyone’s safety in the aftermath.
If you attend enough Pitt Volleyball matches, you’ll soon recognize their music playlist extends beyond “Sweet Caroline.” Fans usually get a healthy dose of Black Sabbath’s classic “War Pigs.”
Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerer of death's construction
In the fields, the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
An anti-war song? Most certainly. “The war machine keeps turning” also applicable to the 2024 Pitt Panthers? Close enough for me to use it as my lede.
The undefeated Pitt War Machine rolled its way to Sweep No. 14 (and No. 5 against a ranked opponent, h/t Dominic Campbell), rounding out the first half of the regular season with a 25-17, 25-18, 25-9 demolition of #15 SMU, hitting .427 while holding the Mustangs to .109 — a not-so-warm “welcome to the conference” for the ACC debutantes.
Start with Olivia Babcock and her 18 kills on 28 swings (.571 hitting) — including a ludicrous 12 kills in the second set. Babcock scored from all over the floor, including the service line, where she put an exclamation mark on Wednesday’s victory.
The final scores may not indicate it, but SMU rode some decent defense and sharp swings to early leads.
“At the beginning of the sets, we tended to struggle a little bit,” Babcock said. “I think this just sheds light on the fact that we can start off a little stronger, so that we can shut them out even more at the end.”
Pitt’s sharp servers were able to stop the Mustangs mid-trot in every set:
Leading Pitt 8-6 in Set 1 before a Valeria Vazquez Gomez serving run
Leading Pitt 12-11 in Set 2 before a Rachel Fairbanks serving run
Leading Pitt 4-2 in Set 3 before Babcock’s serving run
Now, you are right to think “Oh, 4-2. Who cares?” Pitt head coach Dan Fisher cared enough to use an early timeout in order to… ahem… drive home a point about the importance of serve-receive.
“We let a ball drop and we moved slow for one ball,” Fisher said. “I feel like we kind of iced ourselves a little bit in the break. We didn’t come out with the sense of urgency I wanted, and we certainly made a change.”
That’s where Babcock’s trademark jump topspin serve came in. Before you could say ‘Pony Express,’ Pitt went: Stafford kill, Babcock ace, Babcock kill, Babcock ace, Babcock ace, Babcock ace, Babcock kill before the run ended.
Four aces (including three in a row) and two kills in a single run for Olivia Babcock, whose serve had turned into a back-line-seeking missile that should really be registered with federal authorities.
“The third set was, I don’t think I’ve had anything like that in my coaching career,” Fisher said postgame. “I called a timeout at 4-2, and at one point, I looked up and it was 24-8. And I was thinking, ‘well that’s a pretty big shift.’”
It was all over but the sighing for SMU, a team that has become something of a Volleyball Nerd Darling in 2024 for their strong overall play and sweep of then-#2 Nebraska. I see the appeal. They do a lot of things well, particularly on defense. Their pins Naya Shime and Maya Tabron had a tough night scoring points, but they could shake it off for Round 2.
See you in Dallas for the re-match (well, not actually ‘see you,’ I’ll be at the football game). Pitt fans hope this Saturday is a Black Sabbath for the Mustangs.
Torrey Stafford’s stat line
13 kills on 26 swings, 2 errors, good for a .423 hitting percentage. That is (SOMEHOW!) below her season average of .425, which I'll remind you would be the best by a pin hitter in more than a decade. Oh, and she added 4 assists and 6 digs.
They said it!
Looking to catch up on the national landscape of NCAA Volleyball? There’s no better way to spend 30 minutes doing so than the weekly Zoom chat between TV volleyball analyst Emily Ehman and VolleyballMag editor Lee Feinswog. They watch a ton of matches each week, have a friendly rapport and give actual opinions (what a concept!).
Earlier this week, Ehman asked Feinswog (who had seen Pitt in-person twice) if the Panthers had a weakness right now.
Feinswog’s response: “No.”
More from Feinswog:
I talked to Dan Fisher, the coach, the other day. We talked about… in 2017, the last year Nebraska won, after the season [coach] John Cook asked me, “You told me early we were going to win. Why did you say that?” And I told him: “Because you were the least flawed team in the nation.”
[…]
So I always look at it such a way as ‘Who has the least flaws?’ Pittsburgh, when you look at them, there is none. They’re super good at every position, in every rotation.
Well, Ehman traveled to the Fitzgerald Field House to work as color analyst for ACC Network on Wednesday night. Afterwards, Ehman affirmed Pitt’s right to be unanimous #1: “They’re even better than advertised. The way they dominate both sides of the ball is completely unmatched. I don’t see how a team gets a win the rest of the regular season unless they have a crazy off night.”
A reply asked her, is Pitt better than Nebraska? Ehman replied, “Right now, yes.”