Balanced Effort Seals Sweep over Clemson

Friday, October 7

Clemson, SC

7 PM

Pitt

Clemson

Balanced Effort Seals Sweep over Clemson

10/7/2022 10:48:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

No. 9 Pitt records its 15th win of the season, improves to 5-0 in ACC.

CLEMSON, S.C. – No. 9 Pitt (15-2, 5-0) made short work of Clemson (10-7, 1-4) on Friday night inside Jervey Gym in Clemson, S.C. The Panthers recorded their most lopsided set victory of the season tonight, winning the second set by 17 points (25-21, 25-8, 25-18).

"The two things that I liked most about our game was our back row defensive performance and our service line pressure," head coach Dan Fisher said. "We out-dug them by a lot tonight while winning the serve-pass battle. It certainly felt like a balanced attack. We had a lot of players putting up good hitting numbers and our setters had a lot of fun running the type of offense that they wanted to."

QUICK HITS

Courtney Buzzerio led Pitt in kills for the ninth match in a row, finishing with 12.
It was her ninth straight 10+ kill performance and her 13^th of the year.
She did so on .385 hitting, marking her fourth straight match with 10+ kill on .300+ hitting.
Julianna Dalton finished with 10 kills, marking her first double-digit kill match of ACC play.
Rachel Fairbanks delivered her 10^th career double-double tonight, finishing with 16 assists and 14 digs.
Those 14 digs were tied for the team lead with Ashley Browske.
Browske has made 10+ digs in six of her last seven matches and is averaging 5.2 digs/set in her last two appearances.
Chiamaka Nwokolo led the Panthers with six blocks, tying her career best with a 2.0 block/set average. It's the most blocks she has ever recorded in a three-set match.
Valeria Vazquez Gomez made 13 digs on top of seven kills on .500 hitting and two blocks in an all-around effort.
She is averaging 3.55 digs/set over her last five matches.
Lexis Akeo returned to the lineup tonight and led the team with 18 assists. Pitt made kills on 18 of her 28 sets tonight (64.3%).
Pitt out-dug Clemson 51-33, with Fairbanks, Browske and Vazquez Gomez accounting for 41 of that total.
The Panthers have won their first six road matches of the season, extending their road winning streak to 10 matches. Pitt is now 23-1 in its last 24 road matches.
This is the third double-digit road winning streak of the Dan Fisher era.
Pitt has started ACC play 5-0 for the fifth time in the last six years.
Serena Gray recorded four kills, bringing her career total to 999 kills. Her next kill will be her 1,000^th, making her the 20^th Panther in program history to achieve the milestone.

SET 1: PITT 25 – CLEMSON 21
Clemson used their home court advantage to get off to a fast start, hitting at a high efficiency despite strong defense from Pitt and taking a 14-12 advantage. The Panthers took control with a 6-0 scoring run fueled by a pair of kills and a block from Vazquez Gomez and strong serving from Dalton. Pitt would hold that four-point lead until the end of the set, weathering an early storm and pulling away late to seize momentum. Pitt was balanced in nearly every element in the first with Vazquez Gomez, Dalton and Buzzerio finishing with four kills each while Vazquez Gomez, Browske and Fairbanks each made four digs.

SET 2: PITT 25 – CLEMSON 8
The Panthers won nine of the first 10 points and never looked back, dominating every aspect of the set with precision passing, clinical efficiency on offense, strong blocking and a high level of effort in the back row. Pitt out-dug Clemson 18-7 in the set, hitting .560 against the Tigers while holding them to -.036. Four Panthers recorded multiple kills with Buzzerio leading the way with five. Sabrina Starks made four kills on five swings while Vazquez Gomez (5), Browske (4) and Dalton (4) led the defense with a combined 13 digs.

SET 3: PITT 25 – CLEMSON 18
An early 4-0 run off the serve of Gray put Pitt ahead, 5-2. The Panthers maintained that advantage until Gray got back onto the service line (13-10) leading Pitt on an 8-1 run, breaking the set open, 21-11. Cam Ennis made a pair of kills off the bench to bring the match to a close and deliver the 15^th win of the season.

UP NEXT
The Panthers take their road winning streak to Atlanta for a Top 10 matchup against No. 10 Georgia Tech (11-3, 4-1) on Sunday at 2 p.m. The match will be streamed on ACC Network from inside McCamish Pavilion, the first volleyball match in the facilities history.

#H2P | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook