Match Stats
- Pitt def. Miami (RV) 3-1 (25-19, 25-16, 21-26, 26-24)
- Pitt moves to 13-4 (6-0 ACC); Miami falls to 9-3 (3-3 ACC)
- Coral Gables, Florida
- Attendance: 501
- Match Stats
The Pitt Panthers kept their hot streak alive, winning a 10th-straight match on Sunday 3-1 over Miami. The win for Pitt was also their 10th-straight ACC win, dating back to last season. This is the first time since 2003 that the program has won 10 straight matches. The Hurricanes, meanwhile, have gone cold: after starting the season 9-0, Miami has lost their last 3 games against Louisville, Florida State, and Pitt.
Pitt’s big offensive outputs continued on Sunday, hitting .367 as a team (61 kills, 17 errors, 120 attacks). They’ve hit over .300 in all but one of their last 9 games.
Mariah Bell, Stephanie Williams, and Nika Markovic led the Panthers in scoring. The three combined for 56 of the team’s 77 earned points, including 20 from Bell (17 kills, 3 aces, 8 digs, .333 hitting percentage) and 19,6 from Markovic (16 kills, 6 total blocks, 4 digs).
That offensive hitting percentage was the primary difference between the two. Pitt out-blocked Miami 10-5, but it was finding the floor more often than not that paced the Panthers. Miami only had 42 attempts off Pitt shots, and an aggressive Pitt service game kept Miami from capitalizing on service receipt.
Miami was led in scoing by Olga Strantzali, who had 16 kills, 2 aces, and 2 block assists, but hit only .159 in the match. Kolby Bird had 11 kills and hit .409, but didn’t contribute any other points for Miami off serves or blocks.
“Pitt is a good team, well-coached, and pretty consistent,” Miami head coach Jose “Keno” Gandara said. “Unfortunately, we gave them a lot of confidence after that second set. When you are in tight battles, it is a couple of points that make the difference. We had one too many hitting errors in game four.
“Obviously, we liked how we responded after game two and I would like to see more of what the team did in games three and four.”
Starting with a game next week against Syracuse, Pitt will face the toughest part of its conference schedule over the next few weeks. In two weeks, they welcome in the unanimous pre-season conference favorites North Carolina on Friday and then NC State on Sunday. NC State (9-6 overall, 4-0 in ACC) is the only other team without a loss in ACC play. They then play Louisville, Notre Dame, Miami, and Florida State. Of the next 8 games, only 1 (Boston College next week) is against a team with below a .500 record in the ACC this season.
Press Releases
Courtesy: Pitt Athletics
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Courtesy: Miami Athletics
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami volleyball team could not spoil Pittsburgh’s perfect start to Atlantic Coast Conference play, falling to the Panthers 3-1 at James L. Knight Sports Complex Sunday.
The Hurricanes (9-3, 3-3 ACC) grew into the match and were within two points of forcing a fifth set, but the Panthers (13-4, 6-0 ACC) made clutch plays in the end to close the match, 25-19, 25-16, 21-25, 26-24.
“Pitt is a good team, well-coached, and pretty consistent,” Miami head coach Jose “Keno” Gandara said. “Unfortunately, we gave them a lot of confidence after that second set. When you are in tight battles, it is a couple of points that make the difference. We had one too many hitting errors in game four.
“Obviously, we liked how we responded after game two and I would like to see more of what the team did in games three and four.”
Miami went into the intermission with no player above six kills, but as a result of the better-contested third and fourth set, two Hurricanes finished in double figures offensively. Senior outside hitter Olga Strantzali led the team with 16 kills, while junior outside hitter Kolby Bird added 11, on a .409 hitting performance. Sophomore middle blocker Madison Dill contributed seven kills on team-high .500 hitting for the Canes. Redshirt junior setter Haley Templeton had 41 assists for Miami.
Every offensive Pitt player hit above .300 in the match, resulting in three Panthers with double-digit kills: Mariah Bell with match-high 17, Nika Markovic with 16 and Stephanie Williams with 14.
Senior libero Sylvia Hernandez contributed a match-high 16 digs and recorded two of the team’s four service aces. The other two aces were produced by Strantzali. Her counterpart, Angela Seman, led the Panthers with 15 digs.
Senior middle blocker Sakile Simmons led Miami with three blocks, followed by Templeton and Strantzali with two apiece. Pitt outblocked the Canes 10-5 on Sunday afternoon, greatly helped by Markovic’s match-high six blocks.
After an even start, Pittsburgh opened up the first set with a 4-0 run that featured three blocks, forcing a Miami timeout. The Hurricanes quickly shook off the nervous minutes and tied the score at 15 on a kill by senior outside hitter Brooke McDermott, but had no response for what came next: the Panthers went on a 7-1 run before comfortably closing the set, 25-19. Pitt had 17 kills in the set and hit .371 in the opening stanza.
Miami’s momentum in the beginning of the second set was quickly ended by the Panthers, who went on a 10-2 run and led 11-5 as Gandara called a timeout. Sporadic moments of brilliance from various Canes were not enough to spark momentum for Miami, which dropped the second set 25-16. Pitt was even more offensively efficient in the second set before the break and went into the locker room with a 7-2 advantage in blocking.
The Hurricanes won the first point of the third set with a block by Strantzali and Simmons for their first of several short-lived early leads. Miami played from behind for the most of the frame, but back-to-back kills by redshirt freshman outside hitter Elizaveta Lukianova gave the Canes a two-point lead and forced Pitt’s first timeout of the match, 19-17. Lukianova added her third of the match immediately after, while the Hurricanes scored six of the final 10 points to extend the match, 25-21. Miami had three blocks in the third set alone, which was one more than the previous two sets combined.
“[At the break] We had stats that showed what we had to do a little better, we addressed it, talked about what we are capable of, reviewed the game plan a little bit and went back at it,” Gandara said.
The fourth set provided non-stop drama and emotions from the get-go. Miami had the minimal advantage at the media timeout – 15-14 – after a powerful kill by Bird from zone four. The set continued with the same tendency after play resumed, with two- or three-point runs by either team enough to force a timeout by the opponent. Ultimately, the Canes eliminated two Pitt match points to force extra points, but could not deny the Panthers their six straight ACC victory.
Miami will get back on the road next week, heading to Durham, N.C., and Winston-Salem, N.C., for conference contests at Duke (Oct. 13) and Wake Forest (Oct. 15), respectively.
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