Pitt volleyball savors chance to sneak up on opponents in NCAA Tournament

Apr. 12—Dan Fisher doesn't crave attention.

In fact, he is happy just laying low this week in Omaha, Neb., preparing Pitt, the 19th-ranked women's volleyball team in the nation, for another opportunity in the NCAA Tournament.

Pitt has qualified for its 16th tournament appearance — fifth in a row — but the team won't enter as the ACC champion for first time since 2016.

In the fractured-by-covid 2020-21 season, Pitt (16-4, 14-4) is the only ACC team that played a full schedule. The result was a third-place finish behind champion and 13th-ranked Louisville (14-2, 12-2) and No. 22 Notre Dame (14-3, 13-3). Nonetheless, Pitt earned an at-large NCAA berth and will meet Long Island in a first-round game at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday in Omaha.

Are fewer people paying attention to Pitt this season?

"I hope so. I love it," Fisher said. "Everyone's talking about Louisville, and no one's really talking about us as much. I think it's great."

It's been a long, difficult journey for every tournament qualifier to get to this point.

With the pandemic lurking over college athletics, ACC volleyball split into fall and spring seasons. In a normal year, conference and NCAA champions are crowned in December.

Pitt was 4-4 in the fall, ending that segment of the season in late October after splitting two matches with Louisville, winning, 3-0 and losing 3-1.

"When we came back last summer," Fisher said, "we didn't even know what we were coming back to. We didn't even know if we'd have a season."

He said his players came back in varying degrees of conditioning.

"The shape they came back in was all over the place," he said. "Some of them stayed and were allowed to work out at Pitt all the time. Some went home to places where they had access to facilities. Some went home to Europe and were on lockdown and to California and, basically, were on lockdown.

"It took about three weeks to a month before we felt like we could really start training hard again. I didn't even get to see them in person the first month."

After two weeks of quarantine and two more working in groups of four, Pitt was placed in a geographic pod with eventual NCAA Tournament teams Louisville and Notre Dame, plus Syracuse and Boston College.

"Really, really tough schedule to be in," he said. "No real preseason. We were just thrown into it."

Under those circumstances, Fisher and his women grudgingly accepted the 4-4 mark, knowing they would need to perform much better in the 2021 portion of the schedule.

"Of course, you always want to do better, but I think we did OK in the fall, all things considered. Springtime for us felt a lot more normal," he said.

Normal but not easy. Fisher and his players assumed they needed to win almost every game to reach the NCAA Tournament. They won 12 of 12.

"We took a little bit of an underdog mentality," he said. " 'Hey, we're not in. We have to work our way in.' That's how we've been looking at this spring."

Fisher, who's in his eighth season at Pitt with a contract that runs through 2026, has led Pitt to a 102-15 record over the past four seasons, 67-7 in the ACC.

"As a coaching staff, we obsess about the level (of competition) in our practice gym," he said. "We are constantly striving to train at a high level. That way we don't need to find something new when it comes to game time.

"We believe in outworking opponents. We believe that team culture matters. There are no secrets. Winning is a combination of a lot of small things."

Having two-time ACC Player of the Year Kayla Lund helps, too. Lund is the first ACC player to earn the honor twice.

"She's a great human, great teammate and on the court — the best way to describe her — she does not have issues," Fisher said. "She is known for hitting really hard. She has a great arm. She doesn't have a weakness in her game. She can help us win — and does — in all aspects of volleyball."

Lund, a 6-foot senior outside hitter, is a three-time, first-team All-ACC choice. She is joined on the first team by Pitt senior 5-11 right-side hitter Chinaza Ndee. Middle blocker Sabrina Starks, a 6-2 junior named to the All-ACC second team, leads the ACC with 92 blocks.

Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry by email at jdipaola@triblive.com or via Twitter .