Pitt outlasts Wisconsin volleyball in five sets to win 2022 NCAA Tournament regional final
MADISON – It took almost three months and 22 matches, but the Wisconsin volleyball team met its match Saturday.
With a 3-2 win in front of 7,229 fans at the UW Field House, the Pitt Panthers snapped the Badgers’ 21-match winning streak, ended their run of three straight Final Fours and officially put an end to the defense of their 2021 national championship.
After Pitt’s 23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 19-25, 15-13 win, UW coach Kelly Sheffield carefully chose his words and it showed how he felt about his team.
“Somebody has to win. Certainly, our team didn’t lose,” he said. “All credit to Pitt. The effort that they gave tonight in that arena with that awesome crowd, that’s a tough thing they were able to do.
“That was one of the things we talked about. If somebody is going to beat us they were going to have to beat us because our team, there’s no quit and I think everybody saw that.”
The regional final pitted the top two teams in their quarter of the bracket and they delivered a match that lasted 3 hours and 7 minutes, the longest home match in program history, and featured 18 ties and nine lead changes.
Second-seeded Pitt (31-3) advances to the national semifinals Thursday in Omaha, Nebraska, against ACC rival Louisville. Right-side hitter Courtney Buzzerio, a graduate transfer from Iowa who was named the most valuable player of the regional, led the Panthers with 18 kills. Senior middle blocker Chiamaka Nwokolo added 12 kills and hit .458. Serena Gray, a graduate transfer from Penn State, was also effective in the middle, posting nine kills and a .320 hitting percentage.
“I don’t know how much I can tell you about the Xs and Os, we just found a way,” Pitt coach Dan Fisher said.
Junior right-side hitter Devyn Robinson finished with a career-high 21 kills and hit .439 to lead Wisconsin. Four players had double-doubles: senior Izzy Ashburn (32 assists, 11 digs) junior M.J. Hammill (23 assists, 18 digs) and sophomores Sarah Franklin (15 kills, 11 digs) and Julia Orzol (10 kills, 12 digs).
Sophomore Anna Smrek, who joined Robinson on the regional all-tournament team, posted 13 kills and four blocks. Senior Danielle Hart finished with 10 kills and six blocks. Junior Caroline Crawford shared the team-high in blocks with Hart. Freshman Gulce Guctekin had a match-high 24 digs, one of five Badgers who finished in double-digits in that category.
Both teams took a lot of swings; Pitt had 203 compared to 199 for Wisconsin.
The Badgers finished with a better hitting percentage, .266 to .217, and more blocks, 12 to 7, but more than doubled the Panthers’ service errors, 9-4. Overall, Pitt kept the Badgers off balance just enough to take substantial leads in the first, second and fifth sets.
Pittsburgh wins final set against Badgers
All that and UW still was two points away from advancing.
The Badgers fell behind by scores of 5-1 and 11-6 in the fifth set but managed a 6-0 run that set the Field House faithful into a frenzy and gave UW a 12-11 lead.
Franklin started the run with a kill off a pass from Orzol. Graduate transfer Shanel Bramschreiber then served five straight points. Orzol finished four of those with a kill including the swing that gave Wisconsin its 12-11 lead.
Buzzerio ended the run with a kill to tie the match. Fans were hoping for a double contact call by setter Rachel Fairbanks, who assisted the kill. Double contact isn't reviewable, so Sheffield made an unsuccessful challenge for a net violation.
Smrek and Crawford’s block on Cam Ennis gave the Badgers a 13-12 lead, but Pitt closed the match with kills from Buzzerio, junior Valeria Vazquez Gomez and Buzzerio again to reach the Final Four for the second straight year.
“Pittsburgh can test you with some of the things (they do),” Sheffield said. “How they fight to keep the ball off the floor and the pressure they put on your from a lot of different areas. I thought our team probably early on was a little bit jittery, which is to be expected, and then I thought we settled in real nice.”
Impressive season for Wisconsin volleyball
The loss ended what turned out to be an impressive transition year for the Badgers.
They entered the season trying to replace a deep senior class that was led by national player of the year Dana Rettke, and finished with a fourth straight Big Ten title and the second-longest winning streak in school history.
The season might be a precursor to even greater achievements. As it stands now, the only key seniors the team loses are Hart, Bramschreiber and Liz Gregorski. Ashburn plans to use her COVID year and return next season.
“What I told them is this program will win another (national title),” Hart said. “Multiple. Wisconsin volleyball year after year continues to create magic. The way we go about things. The culture, the people, it’s just magical. Every season is magical.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Pitt outlasts Wisconsin volleyball in five-set NCAA regional final
