No. 20 Pitt Travels to Ohio University for Exhibition

Saturday, August 18

Athens, Ohio

1 PM EST

Pitt

Ohio

Photo by: Alex Mowrey/Pitt Athletics

No. 20 Pitt Travels to Ohio University for Exhibition

8/17/2018 4:12:00 PM | Volleyball

Panthers Take on Bobcats in First Test of the 2018 Season

PITTSBURGH – The University of Pittsburgh volleyball team, who begins the season ranked 20^th in the nation, hits the road for the first time this season as the squad heads to Athens, Ohio. The Panthers will take on Ohio University in an exhibition match Saturday, August 18 with action slated to begin at 1 p.m. at the Convocation Center.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Fans can follow along with live updates on Twitter @Pitt_VB.

LAST TIME OUT

Pitt held its annual Blue-Gold Scrimmage Saturday afternoon at the Fitzgerald Field House. Blue came out on top, sweeping Gold in three sets.
Blue opened the match with a first set victory, 25-20. Gold came out strong at the beginning of set two, but Blue battled back to earn a 25-21 win. Blue rounded out the sweep with a dominant 25-17 victory in the third and final set.
Assistant coach Lindsey Behonick led the Blue team, while assistant coach Kellen Petrone coached the Gold squad. Head coach Dan Fisher oversaw both teams' performances.
Offensively for the Blue team, junior Nika Markovic led all players with 17 kills and hit .503 while sophomore Kayla Lund followed with 12. Aiding the hitters was senior setter Kamalani Akeo, who finished the match with 28 assists.

SCOUTING OHIO

Ohio returns to the court after recording a 17-15 overall record in 2017 and a 10-6 mark in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play.
The Bobcats return 13 players from the 2017 squad including MAC Setter of the Year Vera Giacomazzi, MAC Freshman of the Year Tia Jimerson and First Team All-MAC outside hitter Lizzie Stephens.

PANTHERS MAKE HISTORY IN NATIONAL PRESEASON POLL

Pitt received its first national ranking in 26 years, sitting at No. 20 in the 2018 American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division I Top 25 Preseason Poll.
The last time the Panthers were ranked was 26 years ago in 1992 Pitt began that season at No. 25 after concluding 1991 as Big East Regular Season and Tournament Champions.
2018 marks just the fourth year in program history that the school has earned a spot in the AVCA Top 25 Poll, with the only other years ranging from 1990-92. The highest ranking the team received was in 1990, when the Panthers were tabbed 17^thin the nation. Pitt finished 32-6 that season and was crowned Big East Champions.
The Panthers enter the season ahead of Iowa State (21), Michigan State (22), Purdue (23), Cal Poly (24) and Colorado State (25), while Stanford enters as No. 1 overall team. Pitt is the lone team from the ACC to be ranked. Louisville, Florida State and Miami are receiving votes.

DAN FISHER SIGNS NEW CONTRACT

University of Pittsburgh Director of Athletics Heather Lyke announced a new five-year contract for head volleyball coach Dan Fisher that ensures his leadership of the Panthers through at least the 2022 season.
Fisher has led the Pitt volleyball program back to success after taking over a program that historically owns 11 Big East Tournament titles and six Big East Regular Season titles, but was struggling towards the end of the University's time in the Big East.
Since his hiring in 2013, Fisher has guided the program to an ACC Championship, as well as back-to-back showings in the NCAA Tournament in 2016 and 2017, marking the first consecutive appearances since the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
Through his five years with the Panthers, Fisher has amassed an astonishing 118-45 (.724) overall record.

PITT PREDICTED TO WIN 2018 ACC TITLE

On the heels of its first Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship, Pitt earned its highest projection in program history in the ACC Preseason Coaches Poll, with the Panthers being predicted to finish atop of the conference in 2018.
Pitt earned all 14 possible first-place votes on its way to being named the predicted champion, after a successful 2017 season where the team amassed an 18-2 ACC record en route to a share of the conference title with Louisville. The Cardinals came in second in the poll with Florida State, Notre Dame and Duke rounding out the top five, respectively. Teams were unable to vote for themselves in the poll.
The Panthers have steadily move up in the preseason poll since joining the ACC in 2013, the same year head coach Dan Fisher took over the program. In its inaugural season, Pitt was predicted to finish 13^th, while in 2014 they jumped to ninth. Since 2014, the program has consistently jumped two spots in the preseason poll every year, being predicted to finish seventh in 2015, fifth in 2016, third in 2017 and first this season.

THREE PANTHERS TABBED PRESEASON ALL-ACC PICKS

The Panthers landed three student-athletes on the 18-member 2018 Preseason All-ACC Team, including 2017 AVCA Honorable Mention All-Americans Nika Markovic and Stephanie Williams, as well as 2017 AVCA All-East Coast Region First Team member Kamalani Akeo.
Williams, a redshirt junior, earned multiple accolades in 2017 including AVCA Honorable Mention All-America, AVCA All-East Coast Region First Team and All-ACC First Team honors. Williams finished the 2017 season with a team-high eight double-doubles while placing second in both kills (377) and digs (259).
A junior from Braslovce, Slovenia, Markovic received AVCA Honorable Mention All-America, AVCA All-East Coast Region First Team and All-ACC First Team honors in 2017. Last season, Markovic led the team in points with 426 kills, good for third overall in the ACC, and 509 points.
Akeo, a senior, was named to the AVCA All-East Coast Region First Team and All-ACC First Team in 2017. The Hawaii native ranked first on the team in assists (1,258) and assists per set (10.75) in 2017.
The list of honorees included student-athletes from 10 of the 15 conference schools. Louisville led all teams with four selections, while Pitt was second with three.

RETURNING THE RANKS

The Panthers return every starter from the 2017 team after losing just two graduating seniors in Mariah Bell and Alex Rosignol.
Seven key players from last year's team will return to the court including AVCA Honorable Mention All-America selections Nika Markovic and Stephanie Williams as well as 2017 AVCA East Coast Region Freshman of the Year Kayla Lund.
The Panthers will also welcome back standout setter Kamalani Akeo, Chinaza Ndee, Layne Van Buskirk and Angela Seman

FRESHMEN ADDITIONS

Four freshmen join the team this season in Chandler Gorman, Maddie Soboleski, Sabrina Starks and Natalie Steibel.
The 2018 class fills Pitt's need of depth and will make the Panthers more physical at the net.

THE SCHEDULE

Pitt looks to notch its fifth 20-plus win season in as many years, but will not have an easy path as the squad is set to face some of the top talent in the nation.
The Panthers will compete against two teams that ended last year ranked in the top 25 of the AVCA Coaches Poll in Washington and Cal Poly. Both are currently ranked in the 2018 AVCA Preseason Poll as the Huskies come in ahead of No. 20 Pitt at No. 17, while the Mustangs come in at No. 24.
The team will also match up against 11 teams that competed in last season's NCAA Division I postseason tournament.
The Panthers will face four ACC opponents who reached the NCAA Tournament last season in the Miami, NC State, Notre Dame and Louisville. The Panthers lone contest against the Cardinals will feature the ACC Co-Champions, as the two teams shared the 2017 title after recording the same conference record. Louisville came out on top in five sets in the lone meeting of last season, earning the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
ACC play will feature a new format this season, in which all 15 teams will play each other once throughout the first seven weeks of conference action, before moving on to RPI specific opponents in the final four contests which occur over a three-week span. The benefit behind the switch is to help teams aiming for a postseason run by increasing the level of competition based on RPI, but also decreasing the amount of contests played in order for student-athletes to recover.

2018 PITT VOLLEYBALL TICKETS

Flex season ticket packages as well as single-match and group tickets for the 2018 volleyball season are now on sale and can be purchased by calling the Panthers' Ticket Office at (800) 643-PITT (7488) or online at PittsburghPanthers.com.

UP NEXT

Pitt opens the 2018 season Friday, Aug. 24 as they welcome Butler, No. 24 Cal Poly and Pepperdine to the Fitzgerald Field House for the Panther Challenge, the first of two home tournaments.

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