No. 22 Pitt volleyball sweeps No. 20 Georgia Tech, 3-0

The Pitt volleyball team continued its excellent spring on Monday with a 3-0 sweep over No. 20 Georgia Tech. The victory moved the No. 22 Panthers have won all three of their spring contests, giving them an over 7-4 record going back to the fall season.

If you watched, it certainly wasn’t an easy win for Pitt. All three sets were highly contested as the Panthers pulled out 25-19, 25-23, and 25-19 wins over the Yellow Jackets (8-2).

For Pitt, the name of the game was all about balance. That could not be seen more clearly than the fact that All-American and ACC Player of the Year Kayla Lund was not even in the team’s top three leaders in kills. Just as shocking, fellow team captain and senior leader Chinaza Ndee was not there, either. Valeria Vazquez Gomez led the Panthers in that category with 11 while Chiamaka Nwokolo had nine, and Sabrina Starks had eight. Fourth was transfer Jordan Lockwood with seven.

Both Lund and Ndee had subpar games, leading the team with a combined 11 errors between them. Lund, in particular, struggled with eight of those and a negative hitting percentage. Both both contributed in other errors with Lund recording three aces and a team high 13 digs. Ndee added four blocks up front behind only middle Sabrina Starks (5).

Georgia Tech was missing their starting setter so you take that into account. But it was also good to see the Panthers pull out the win with their two best players struggling so much on offense. The team got some timely performances from other players and that’s going to be needed through the rest of the season as the Panthers are making up for the losses of some of their top offensive players in Stephanie Williams, Layne Van Buskirk, and Nika Markovic, lost due to graduation.

Next up is a match on Friday against Wake Forest.

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