No. 4 Pitt Volleyball To Open Season At Jeep AVCA First Serve

PITTSBURGH - Coming off of five consecutive trips to the national semifinals, the Pitt volleyball team, ranked No. 4 in the country in the preseason, will take part in the Jeep AVCA First Serve Sunday and Monday at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisc. Pitt will open the season Sunday at 4 p.m. with a titanic match-up against No. 3 Kentucky and the Panthers will then square off with Xavier Monday at 6 p.m.

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FIRST SERVE

The 2026 Pitt Volleyball team has 15 members, including eight returners and seven newcomers.
The Panthers are only the fourth team in NCAA Volleyball history to advance to five consecutive national semifinals (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025).
Pitt volleyball has been ranked in the top five to open the season in four consecutive years and has been a top 10 preseason pick in six straight years. The Panthers have, at one point, been ranked among the top 10 teams in the country for nine consecutive seasons.
Head coach Dan Fisher won his 350th match at Pitt in the regional final match against No. 12 Purdue last season. He is 350-74 at Pitt and 425-76 in his career.
The Jeep AVCA First Serve is the first of three major events the Panthers will play in this season (Opening Spike Classic and Shriners Children's Showdown at the Net).

SCOUTING KENTUCKY

No. 4 Pitt opens the Jeep AVCA First Serve Showcase and the regular season by facing No. 3 Kentucky Sunday.
In the AVCA preseason poll, Kentucky received four first-place votes, second-most in the nation.
Kentucky went 30-3 a year ago, including a perfect 15-0 in SEC play, winning its ninth consecutive league crown.
The Wildcats advanced to the NCAA National Championship before falling to Texas A&M in three sets.
Kentucky returns 10 players from that squad, including top hitter Brooklyn DeLeye, along with Lizzie Carr, Asia Thigpen and Kennedy Washington -- all which ranked among the Wildcats' top five scorers.

SCOUTING XAVIER

Although Xavier was not ranked in the AVCA preseason poll, the Musketeers went 26-5 a year ago and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Xavier brings back 13 returners and 61 percent of its scoring contribution from a year ago.
Redshirt junior Margo Kemp is the team's top returner, finishing third on the team in scoring last season.
Head Coach Christy Pfeffenberger enters her 11th season at the helm and comes off a year in which she earned the 2025 Big East Coaching Staff of the Year award.

BACK TO BACK!

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).

FIVE STRAIGHT SEMIS

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).

HARD TO BEAT

Pitt is 153-20 (.884) over the past five seasons, including a mark of 47-6 (.887) in regular season non-conference matches.
In non-conference play, Pitt has gone undefeated twice in the last five years, doing so in both 2021 (11-0) and 2024 (10-0).
Pitt is 16-5 against ranked opponents in non-conference play over the past five years and 31-1 against unranked teams, dropping a four-set match in 2022 to a Towson squad that went 29-2 on the season.

NEUTRAL SITE IS A NET POSITIVE

Since joining the ACC in 2013, Pitt has played 60 neutral site matches.
The Panthers are 46-14 (.767) in those contests, which includes a 3-2 mark a year ago.

THEY'VE GOT THEIR EYES ON US

Senior Olivia Babcock and junior transfer Izzy Starck are 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.

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.