Pitt sophomore Olivia Babcock stands 6-foot-4, with a right arm that can be intimidating when she moves purposely from the back row and swings it with all her strength. It’s almost as if she’s trying to deflate the volleyball with one massive blow.
A sophomore All-American and ACC Player of the Year, Babcock used that right arm Thursday to help lead the Panthers (32-1) to a 3-2 victory (25-19, 24-26, 25-16, 21-25, 15-12) against Oregon (24-8) in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 at Petersen Events Center.
Afterward, when she was asked about the origin of her aggressiveness, she boiled down her volleyball skills into a couple of simple sentences.
“Hit the ball as hard as you can,” she said, all but shrugging her shoulders. “We practice that. (Coach Dan Fisher) throws me a lot of deep balls. (He says), ‘Hit it,’ and I do.”
She did make a concession to team’s mental makeup, indicating it carries as much weight as one of her back-row bombs.
“Our mindset gets stronger every single day,” she said. “We know our mindset matters just as much as how we perform on the court.”
Before the fifth set, senior setter Rachel Fairbanks said the players cleared their heads in the most natural way possible: screaming in the locker room.
“There was a scream, but the scream is literally to get our brains to stop going,” she said. “Scream, reset, move on. We just needed to find a way to get back to Pitt good.”
Of course, there’s much more to Pitt’s fourth consecutive Final Four quest than Babcock’s simplification. The game — and Pitt’s season, hopes and dreams — hung in the balance and could have crashed to the floor. The Ducks served several slick deep balls, often confusing Pitt’s players who weren’t sure if it was going to clear the end line or not.
“It rattled us. Good on them,” Fisher said. “(Oregon) gave us a ton to deal with.”
As a result, the fifth set — only Pitt’s fourth of the season — was tied at 8-8 and 9-9 before Babcock recorded two of her 31 kills (a school record for the NCAA Tournament ) to give the Panthers a 12-9 advantage on the way to a 15-12 victory.
“We’re probably among the top three in the country in how much we set the back row, and we’re pretty efficient with it,” said Fisher, noting that Torrey Stafford is also pretty good at swinging a big arm. Stafford recorded 14 kills and Bre Kelley 12.
The victory lifts the Panthers, who are seeking their fourth consecutive Final Four berth, into an Elite 8 match against Kentucky (23-7) at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Pete.
The winner earns a ticket to Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center for the national semifinals scheduled for next Thursday. Kentucky defeated Missouri, 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 16-25, 25-13), in the first match Thursday at the Pete.
First priority for Fisher’s team is to get some rest, with the most intense games of the season coming in the middle of final exams.
“The priority is recovery,” Fisher said. “We need to use that wisely and get some good sleep and get some good treatment and probably go a little lighter (in practice Friday), obviously, after a five-setter. Just allow ourselves a break. We just had a pretty intense battle.”
Fisher was proud of his team but especially its 71 digs.
“That’s pretty relentless defense by us,” he said. “Just nothing but positive thoughts on my team and the heart we showed. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be ugly at times, and sometimes you need your B and C game. Just an incredible, gritty effort by our team to find a way to persevere when it wasn’t always going our way.
“I hope the fans liked it. It wasn’t always the cleanest, but I thought it was a helluva battle, probably a good game to be at, I’d imagine.”
Pitt hasn’t faced much adversity this season, and Fisher hopes this game provided enough to help if more difficult moments arise Saturday or in the Final Four.
“Time will tell,” he said, “but it’s just one more feather in our cap knowing we can be in those type moments. We can be down.
“You can’t just be a team that can play when you’re up. That doesn’t work at this level anymore. There are eight teams left.”