Pitt Volleyball Sweeps Ohio State in Spring Scrimmage

PITTSBURGH — The Pitt Panthers showcased their talents in their recent spring scrimmages vs. Ohio State, winning in a sweep at Fitzgerald Field House.

This makes Pitt 2-0 in the spring season, as they defeated rival Penn State in five sets at Rec Hall on April 9.

Both teams kept it close in the first period, with Pitt taking a 9-6 lead, but Ohio State cut it back to 13-12.

The Panthers scored nine consecutive points, with junior right side hitter Olivia Babcock making three service aces and two kills during the run, and finished the set on a 12-2 run, winning 25-14.

Pitt dominated in the second set, going up 7-2 and building leads of 13-7, 17-9, 22-13 and won the set again 25-14.

The Panthers played even better in the third set, starting out 7-0 and building leads of 10-2, 15-4, 20-5 and won 25-9.

Pitt hit .410 in the game, including hitting .526 in the second set and hitting .552 in the third set. They held Ohio State to .076

Junior outside hitter Blaire Bayless led the Panthers with 10 kills, hitting .500, while making two blocks, two digs and two assists.

Pitt sophomore middle blockers in Ryla Jones had an efficient match, with seven kills and hitting .700, and Dalia Vîrlan made three kills and a team-high three blocks.

Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Sophia Gregoire made six kills, hitting .556, led the Panthers with nine digs, while also adding four assists.

Babcock made eight kills and redshirt sophomore setter Haiti Tautua'a made 19 assists for Pitt in the win.

Pitt head coach Dan Fisher praised his team for their work during the week and how they have had a strong showing throughout the spring.

"Other than the first probably 15 points of set one, I was pretty pleased. "I think, for whatever reason, the two [matches] we've had this spring, we've came out of the gates making a lot of unforced errors. I'm glad that our fans got to see what I've been seeing in practice.

"I think we've had one of our best spring's really ever and our middle blocker group is way better across the board. You saw Ryla tonight and Haiti has been improving steadily and we worked a lot this week on middle connection and I thought that was great tonight. And we passed really badly against Penn State and passed really well tonight. So I think there's some things we've worked on in practice that have went really well."

Pitt will finish off their spring schedule with another scrimmage at Fitzgerald Fieldhouse, as they face Michigan on April 13.

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