Inside The Panthers

Pitt Volleyball's Olivia Babcock Wins Another National Award

Pitt Panthers volleyball star Olivia Babcock wins another award.

Dominic Campbell

Pitt Volleyball Right Side Hitter Olivia Babcock
Pitt Volleyball Right Side Hitter Olivia Babcock / Courtesy of Pitt Athletic

PITTSBURGH -- Pitt Panthers volleyball star Olivia Babcock won yet another national award for her fantastic play throughout the 2024 season.

The Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) named Babcock as the winner of the Honda Sport Award winner for volleyball. The Honda Sport Award is in its 49th year of existence and the CWSA presents it annually to the top women athletes in the 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports, marking "the best of the best in collegiate athletics."

Babcock is also a finalist for Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year 2024 Honda Cup. CBS Sports will broadcast the awards ceremony on June 30 at 7:00 p.m. from New York City.

She is also the first winner of the award in program history, beating out libero/defensive specialist Lexi Rodriguez of Nebraska and outside hitters Sarah Franklin from Wisconsin and Brooklyn DeLeye from Kentucky.

Babcock is the first woman athlete in Pitt Athletics history to win this award.

She also won both the ACC Player of the Year Award and AVCA East Coast Region Player of the Year Award as well this season.

Babcock finished the regular season ranked second in the country with .69 aces per set, fourth with 5.87 points per set and No. 16 with 4.54 kills per set, while leading the ACC in all three categories. She also ranked tied for ninth in the ACC with a .328 hitting percentage, No. 8 in the conference with 1.19 blocks per set and averaged 1.76 digs per set.

She had 71 service aces on the season, which easily broke the program record in a single season the 25-point scoring era (2008-Present) and also broke the program record in a single season all-time, of 67.

She is also the only second Pitt player to win ACC Player of the Year Award, as former outside hitter Kayla Lund won in back-to-back seasons in 2019 and 2020.

Babcock earned two AVCA National Player of the Week honors this season for her great play.

She earned it for her play in the sweeps of then ranked No. 22 Florida State on Nov. 15 and Miami on Nov. 17, both at home.

She averaged 8.08 points per set, 6.50 kills per set, 1.17 blocks per set, 1.17 digs per set, 1.00 ace per set and hit .525 in both matches, helping her earn ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors for the third time in 2024.

Babcock finished with 19 kills and hit .519, while also making four digs and four blocks in the win over the Seminoles. She also had 20 kills, the most for her in three sets this season, plus five service aces, three digs and three blocks, while also hitting .531 vs. the Hurricanes.

She earned the honor the first time this season for her play in sweeps of Cal and Stanford in October.

She led with 16 kills. hit a season-high .577, while also adding five total blocks, two service aces and two digs against Cal on Oct. 18. She also led with 17 kills, hit .361, along with six total blocks, six digs and a service ace vs. then ranked No. 5 Stanford on Oct. 20, with both matches at home.

Babcock finished that weekend averaging 7.0 points per set, 5.5 kills per set, 1.83 blocks per set, 1.33 digs per set and hitting .452 in both games, also earning ACC Offensive Player of the Week honors for the second time.

One of her best games of the season came against Boston College on the road on Oct. 4, a four-set victory.

Babcock finished with a triple-double, with 14 kills, 12 service aces and 10 digs in the victory. This was the first triple-double for her at Pitt and the first for the program since Rachel Fairbanks had 10 kills, 28 assists and 13 digs in the sweep over BYU In the Second Round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament at the Petersen Events Center.

Those 12 service aces set the record for the most in a single match in Pitt history. The previous record for service aces in a match sat at eight total, which Diana Andreyko had in a five set win vs. Florida State on the road on Sept. 3, 2005 and Wendy Hatlestad had in a sweep vs. Savannah State at home on Sept. 13, 2002.

She also had the record for most service aces in a match in NCAA Division I in 2024. She broke the previous high of 11 that Nicholls State junior outside hitter Leah Linares Castro had in the four-set victory in the season opener vs. South Carolina State on Aug. 30.

Babcock also had a triple-double in the last match of the season, a five-set thriller over then ranked No. 19 Georgia Tech at home on Nov. 30. She finished with 18 kills, 12 digs and a career-high 10 blocks in the victory.

She had an incredible performance against No. 4 Oregon in the Sweet 16, with 31 kills, setting a new program record in the NCAA Tournament.

Babcock then broke that record with 33 kills in the loss to Louisville in the Final Four at the KFC Yum! Center, which set the program record for both kills in an NCAA Tournament match and in the 25-point scoring era, while also ranking No. 6 n a match all-time in program history.

She has two more years left of eligibilty, where she'll look to keep Pitt amongst the best in 2025.

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Dominic Campbell
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