KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pittsburgh volleyball coach Dan Fisher said he’s to blame after the Panthers lost in the NCAA tournament semifinals for a record fifth straight season Thursday night.
Top-seeded Pitt was swept by No. 3 Texas A&M 29-27, 25-21, 25-20 and failed to advance to the program’s first national championship game.
The Aggies finished the three sets with a .382 hitting percentage and 52 kills; the Panthers hit .344 with 45 kills.
In Sunday’s championship match, Texas A&M will face Kentucky, a five-set winner over Wisconsin in the other semifinal.
“I guess the main story from a coaching standpoint is, we hit for a high-enough percentage, that’s for sure,” said Fisher, the 13th-year Panthers coach. “If you would have told me we would hit .350, I would have been pretty pleased with that.
“We were nowhere near as good as we needed to be defensively. … I thought we were ready. It’s on me and on us as coaches. We just weren’t good enough defensively.”
Pitt was eliminated in the national semifinals by Nebraska in 2021 and 2023, and by Louisville in 2022 and 2024.
“I’m proud of being consistently good and consistently in the hunt. But I’m pretty pissed off about it right now,” Fisher said.
On Thursday, Pitt junior and 2024 American Volleyball Coaches Association National Player of the Year Olivia Babcock had a game-high 22 kills. The 6-foot-4 right-side hitter, who is a finalist for the prestigious award again, fought back tears after the loss.
“Obviously, losing sucks, but I don’t think there’s anything shameful or bad about losing in a final four,” Babcock said. “I mean only four teams got to play today. We were grateful enough to be one of them. Losing is always hard.”
She echoed Fisher’s comments on the defensive play.
“Offensively, we were great the entire night,” she said. “Normally, we’re better at getting block touches and we are making more digs. Today, I feel that we just weren’t up to our standard.”
Pitt beat Purdue in the regional finals to become the first team since Texas (2012-16) to make five straight final four appearances. The Longhorns won the national championship in 2012 and were the runners-up in 2015 and 2016.
