No. 10 Pitt volleyball sweeps Duke to avenge its only loss

Pitt’s volleyball team has suffered only one loss all season, a four-set stunner to the Duke Blue Devils. On Sunday, the Panthers avenged that loss, easily beating Duke at home in straight sets for a convincing 3-0 win.

Pitt took the first set, 25-20, and then won the each of the next two, 25-17. That pushes the Panthers’ record to 26-1.

Duke (14-10) didn’t look like the same Blue Devils team the Panthers saw a few weeks ago. It was mentioned during that broadcast that Duke was playing the best volleyball they’d played all year and that was probably true. On Sunday, while the Blue Devils fought well, they were ultimately outgunned by Pitt.

As an aside, Pitt had another great day with attendance, setting a new record with 3,179 people. That not only broke the old record set earlier this year against Louisville (2,152), it crushed it. Really great to see so many fans go out and support a sport that isn’t traditionally viewed as one of the big ones.

That isn’t surprising but it was still nice to see and help confirm that Pitt just ran into an off day at Duke earlier this year. While the two teams are technically tied 1-1, I don’t know how many people would pick the Blue Devils if the teams faced off a third time. Pitt looked pretty impressive today and managed to win quite comfortably. The loss, as I’ve said before, is unfortunate. But to expect a team to run the table is unrealistic, more times than not. Pitt bounced back well today and did what you’d like to see after coming off the earlier loss.

Next up is a tough road match with Florida State, that will go a long way in determining the conference champion. More on this later but Pitt still has not managed to lock up the ACC title just yet.

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