Pitt volleyball in NCAA Tournament, will face VCU in first round match

As expected, Pitt’s volleyball team got into the NCAA Tournament. On Selection Sunday, it was announced the Panthers would face VCU (30-2) in the first round. That match will take place on Friday at 5:00 p.m.

If Pitt (25-6) gets by VCU, they will again face Penn State in the second round as they did last season. The Nittany Lions are the No. 1 overall seed so you don’t need me to tell you that would be a stiff challenge. Last year, Pitt took the first set from Penn State before losing and I think this year’s Panthers team is better. But it still would be a very difficult match for them. Making things even harder is that Pitt will also be playing at Penn State so a second round match would be basically a road game.

Only the top 16 seeds are announced so Pitt’s exact seed wasn’t given. But facing a no. 1 seed in the second round, it looks like they’re essentially a No. 8 or No. 9 seed.

NC State was one of the last four in and in all, six teams from the ACC got into the NCAA Tournament. I was a little surprised to see that many. The ACC hadn’t been highly-regarded all year and Louisville was the only team in the conference even getting votes by season’s end. But five of the six teams were in the top 40 in RPI and the sixth, NC State, was No. 41.

Overall, great to see Pitt in the NCAA Tournament again. These are the types of things that build programs and getting in two years in a row now will help raise the program’s profile greatly. Congrats to coach Dan Fisher and the team on another successful season.

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