University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt
SMU
No. 2 Pitt Set For Rematch With No. 6 SMU Sunday On ESPN
10/9/2026 2:24:00 PM | Volleyball
PITTSBURGH - No. 2 Pitt and No. 6 SMU will meet for the second time in five days as the two teams head to Dallas to square off Sunday at 3 p.m. on ESPN.
SMU handed Pitt its first loss of the season Wednesday night, defeating the Panthers in Petersen Events Center 21-25, 25-19, 38-36, 25-22. After splitting the first two sets, Pitt and SMU played an epic 48-minute third set and the Mustangs came away with the pivotal set victory and carried that momentum into the match win.
SMU is one of three unbeaten ACC teams heading into the weekend, while Pitt is one of four teams with just one conference defeat thus far. Sunday's match will go a long way towards determining how the top of the ACC begins to shake out.
BRING 'EM BACK
• On Sept. 26, Olivia Babcock and Blaire Bayless announced that they will return to Pitt for a fifth season in 2027, due to new NCAA rules enacted over the summer.
• Babcock and Bayless made the announcement during a timeout at Pitt football's Homecoming victory over Bucknell in Acrisure Stadium.
• The duo has led Pitt to three straight trips to the Final Four with an overall record of 106-13. Babcock and Bayless have lost just two home matches in four seasons at Pitt.
WE'RE #1
• The NCAA released the first official RPI ranks on Oct. 4 and Pitt is No. 1 in the country in the key metric used for NCAA Tournament selections and seeding.
• Pitt ranked ahead of Kentucky, Nebraska, SMU and Wisconsin.
• Despite the loss to SMU Wednesday, Pitt remains No. 1 in the RPI, according to most unofficial websites tracking RPI on a daily basis. SMU remains No. 4.
FISHING FOR WINS
• Pitt Head Coach Dan Fisher has spent more than a decade reeling in wins. He is the winningest active coach, by winning percentage, in NCAA Division I with a minimum of five years experience. His .851 win percentage ranks just ahead of Nebraska's Dani Busboom Kelly (.848).
• Fisher, in fact, is fourth among all coaches in NCAA Division I history (minimum five years) in winning percentage.
NO STARCK CONTRAST
• There's nothing stark about the consistency Izzy Starck has brought to Pitt's lineup. The junior setter ranks No. 11 in the country in assists per set and she has recorded six double-doubles thus far in 2026.
• The 2024 AVCA Freshman of the Year and a national champion at Penn State, Starck has averaged 10.86 assists per set during her career, which ranks second among active players across the entirety of the NCAA. She is averaging 10.80 assists per set in her first year with the Panthers.
• Starck is guiding an offense that is third in the nation with a .313 attack percentage. Pitt hit over .400 as a team in each of its three matches in the Panther Challenge, including an eye-popping .476 in a win over Wright State.
HARD TO BEAT
• Since the start of the 2021 season, nobody in NCAA Division I women's volleyball has won more than Pitt.
• Pitt has the second-best record in NCAA Division I women's volleyball since the start of the 2021 season with a mark of 167-21 (.888). That includes a record of 89-10 (.899) in ACC matches. Only Nebraska is better with a record of 167-20 (.893)
• In non-conference play, Pitt has gone undefeated three times in the last six years, doing so in 2021 (11-0) and 2024 (10-0) prior to another unbeaten (10-0) non-conference slate this year.
STREAKING FROM THE START
• Pitt began the 2026 season by winning 14 consecutive matches, tying for the fourth-longest win streak to open a season in program history.
• In 2018, Pitt established the longest win streak to start a season in program history, going 23-0. The Panthers went 30-2 that year, including a 17-1 mark in the ACC, but lost a five-set match to No. 18 Michigan in the NCAA Tournament second round.
ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END. TIME TO START A NEW STREAK
• Apparently, home is where the wins are. SMU snapped Pitt's 58-match home win streak Wednesday night, a run that dated back to Sept. 14, 2023. That streak ties 1990-94 Florida for the seventh-longest in NCAA Division I history.
• Pitt had also won 40 straight ACC home matches, dating back to a four-set loss to then-No. 1 Louisville inside Fitzgerald Field House.
• That streak included 36 matches inside Fitzgerald Field House, 17 inside the Petersen Events Center and a streak of five inside the brand new Victory Heights Arena.
• Pitt has begun a five-match win streak inside Victory Heights and is yet to drop a set in the new facility after sweeping three matches Sept. 11-13 in the Panther Challenge. Pitt then swept Cal and No. 12 Stanford.
TWO DOWN
• Olivia Babcock has already done something only four players in AVCA history have done: win National Player of the Year honors twice. Now she's chasing something nobody has done before.
• Olivia Babcock enters her senior campaign as the reigning two-time AVCA National Player of the Year.
• She is now the fifth player in the award's history to receive the award back-to-back and the first since Kathryn Plummer (2017 & 2018).
• Others who have won the award twice are Logan Tom (2001 & 2002), Misty May (1997 & 1998), Tara Cross (1988 & 1989) and Tonya Sanders-Williams (1987 & 1989). No individual has ever won the award three times in their career.
FIVE ALIVE
• The Panthers advanced to their fifth consecutive national semifinal with a four-set win over Purdue in 2025.
• Pitt is the fourth team in history to accomplish the feat and the first since Texas (2012-2016).
ON THE ATTACK
• Pitt ranks third in the country with a .318 attack percentage. Only Nebraska (.323) and Louisville (.323) are ahead of the Panthers.
• The Panthers had hit at least .300 for six straight matches prior to failing to reach that percentage in a sweep at Boston College.
• In total, Pitt has hit at least .300 in 9-of-15 matches.
WELCOME TO THE HEIGHTS
• The Panthers provided a sneak peak at Victory Heights on Aug. 8 for the annual Blue-Gold scrimmage.
• The department held a Fan Fest to christen the new facility beginning at noon, with first serve at 2 p.m.
• In front of 2,341 fans, Team Gold pulled off a reverse sweep. Team Blue won the opening two sets 25-23 and 30-28 before Gold rallied with 25-18, 25-20, 15-7 scores for the win.
• Pitt then officially opened Victory Heights Sept. 11-13 for the Panther Challenge. The Panthers swept Jacksonville, High Point and Wright State on the way to a perfect record inside the building.
• The $240 million state-of-the-art athletics project provides Pitt student-athletes with national-caliber competition, training, sports performance and medicine facilities.
• Announced in 2020, Victory Heights includes a new 2,800-seat arena for the volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling programs. The volleyball team also has its own in-house practice facility.
• Following wins over Cal and No. 12 Stanford, Pitt is now 5-0 inside Victory Heights and has not lost a set in the building.
RECORD, REWRITTEN
• Olivia Babcock didn't just break Pitt's single-season kills record. She moved the bar. Babcock set the new standard with her 556th of the 2025 campaign against UMBC in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, finishing with 646.
• Wendy Hatlestad owned the previous record set in 2003 with 555.
• Babcock achieved this milestone a year after setting the 25-point rally scoring kill record, finishing the 2024 season with 538 kills.
THE BAYLESS BUILD
• Blaire Bayless didn't arrive at Pitt fully built. She built herself here.
• Bayless has become the exception in this era of college athletics -- a player who has stayed at the same program for four years and made steady, continual growth throughout her career.
• As a freshman in 2023, Bayless played in just seven sets at Pitt with 13 kills. A year later, she saw much more action, playing in 33 matches and 89 sets.
• As a junior in 2025, Bayless truly blossomed. She played in 34 matches and 120 sets, increasing her production in almost every area, averaging a career-best 2.65 kills per set on .296 hitting with career-highs in digs (115/0.96 per set), blocks (58/0.48 per set) and points (349/2.91 per set).
• But Bayless didn't stop there. In 2026, she is averaging 3.14 kills per set, 1.72 digs per set, 0.58 blocks per set and 3.45 points per set -- each of which are on pace to be career highs. She has become one of the most important pieces to finding balance offensively while also contributing defensively.
• Bayless was named to the National Player of the Year Watch List on Oct. 8, becoming the third Pitt player on the list -- along with Olivia Babcock and Izzy Starck.
D-FENCE
• Head Coach Dan Fisher said this could be the best defensive team he's coached. With 15 matches down, the numbers are making their case.
• Pitt has outdug 12-of-16 opponents in 2026 and is averaging 2.4 per match more than their opponents.
• Up front, Pitt ranks No. 9 nationally in blocks at 2.90 per set. Maaike Heilig is No. 19 nationally, and second among all freshmen, at 1.43 blocks per set and Abbey Emch is No. 34 at 1.36 blocks.
• All of that adds up to a .179 attack percentage for opponents this year, third in the ACC despite playing seven top 25 teams through the first 15 matches.
BLOCK PARTY
• Freshman Maaike Heilig and Sophomore Abbey Emch are leading Pitt's frontline defense at the net.
• Heilig and Emch both rank among the top 40 blockers in the country, averaging 1.43 and 1.36 blocks per set. As a team, Pitt ranks ninth in the country, and second in the ACC, at 2.90 blocks per set.
• Six players have at least 29 blocks this year, led by Heilig with 63. Emch adds 49 blocks and Olivia Babcock has 48.
• Emch had nine blocks in a three-set sweep over Cal and has at least four blocks in eight of the 12 matches she has played in. Heilig has had at least five blocks eight times.
THEY'VE GOT THEIR EYES ON US
• Senior Olivia Babcock and junior transfer Izzy Starck were two of 30 players named to the AVCA Preseason Player of the Year Watch List.
• Babcock is the two-time defending AVCA Player of the Year and Starck was named AVCA Freshman of the Year in 2024.
• Blaire Bayless was added to the list on Oct. 8, giving Pitt three of the 46 current nominees for the award.
LIV'S BUSY SUMMER!
• Olivia Babcock competed with the USA Senior National Team for the third straight summer.
• For the second straight year, she was a nominee for an ESPY award for Best College Athlete in Women's Sports along with UCLA basketball's Lauren Betts, Northwestern lacrosse's Madison Taylor and Oklahoma gymnastics' Faith Torrez.
• Babcock wrapped up the summer in New York City for the second consecutive year to attend the CWSA Honda Award Banquet on Aug. 27. During the live broadcast, she was named a top three finalist, along with eventual winner Betts and Nebraska's Jordyn Frahm.
• She is now the two-time defending Honda Award winner for volleyball and the only Panther in Pitt Athletics history to receive the prestigious award.
