NC State Volleyball Defeats Pitt, Moves into 1st

PITTSBURGH – The NC State volleyball team put together a #STATEment performance Sunday afternoon to snap Pittsburgh’s 13-match winning streak and hand the Panthers their first Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) loss this season with a 3-1 (25-21, 15-25, 25-19, 25-18) win inside Fitzgerald Field House.

It was the Wolfpack’s first-ever win at Pitt, which is receiving votes in this week’s American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top 25 Poll, as NC State was unsuccessful in its first six tries.

With the win, the Pack takes over first place in the conference standings as both programs are 9-1 but NC State would own the tiebreaker since the teams only meet once this season.

The Wolfpack is now 14-7 on the year and 9-1 in ACC play, while Pitt moves to 16-5 and 9-1 in league play.

Worth Noting

– NC State handed Pittsburgh its first loss since Sept. 8 at Western Kentucky, a span of more than a month.

– The Panthers had won their last nine sets played with three sweeps prior to dropping the opening set to the Wolfpack.

– NCSU won the first set for 16th time this season, as the squad has only lost the first frame in five matches.

Quoting Hampton-Keith

Overall thoughts…

“I’m so impressed with our team’s performance today,” said head coach Linda Hampton-Keith. “Our ability to execute and stay in the moment was great and it allowed us to make some tactical decisions when needed because our team was just all in.

“It was another serve-receive battle today and there were times when we weren’t passing well and our options were limited and there were times where we were really good at the service line and put a lot of pressure on them.

“We preached to our team all week about process and staying mindful in our process and to let the outcomes take care of themselves. So I’m just so happy for them to get the outcome we wanted when it would have been easier to get distracted.”

Match Rewind

– NC State started slow in the match, but quickly erased a 4-0 deficit to take an 8-7 lead following a bad set by Pittsburgh.

– The teams were within a few points of each other throughout most of the frame before four unanswered points by NC State to grab a 22-20 advantage to force a Pitt timeout.

– After a point by the Panthers, the Wolfpack closed out the opening set with three consecutive points to take the frame, 25-21, and own a 1-0 lead in the overall match.

– The second set was tight early, but Pittsburgh pulled away with a 6-0 run from 10-10 to take control of the frame en route to the 25-15 victory to even the contest at one.

– NC State found its rhythm and settled into the match in the third set, as the Wolfpack recorded a .308 attacking percentage with only four errors.

– The frame was tightly contested, as there were 13 ties and five lead changes.

-With the score knotted at 16, sophomore Lauryn Terry swatted a kill from the middle to spark a 5-1 run extending the NC State lead to 21-17.

– After Pitt trimmed the advantage to 22-29, NCSU closed out the set with three unanswered points to win the set, 25-19, taking a 2-1 lead in the match.

– NC State charted the best attacking percentage for either team on the day with a .412 clip, headlined by 18 kills.

– The Wolfpack rushed out to a 6-3 lead in the fourth set before the Panthers battled back in the frame.

– Leading 10-9, NC State won 10 of the next 13 rallies to take control of the set with a 20-12 advantage to force a Pitt timeout.

– After narrowing the margin to 22-18, a block by Terry and Teni Sopitan gave the Wolfpack a 23-18 lead and back-to-back kills from Sopitan followed to close out the match.

Top Performers

– Bree Bailey led NC State offensively with 13 kills, while Julia Brown and Sopitan each tallied 11 kills.

– Kaitlyn Kearney swatted seven kills on 16 swings and did not commit an error to log a .438 attacking percentage.

– At setter, Kylie Pickrell dished out a match-high 41 assists in addition to three digs, two kills, two blocks and a service ace.

– Defensively, Brown paced the Pack with 10 digs to notch her 10th double-double of the year. Libero Emily Harris had eight digs and Terry logged a match-high six blocks.

Up Next

NC State continues its four-match road swing when it heads to Miami Friday night Oct. 27. First serve is slated for 7 p.m. inside Knight Sports Complex.