The Schnable Scoop: Pitt Volleyball Gave the Best Answer to Its First Loss

Pitt volleyball trailed 24-20 in the third set in Dallas, with SMU one point from forcing a fourth.

The Panthers scored six straight.

When it was over, a team that had lost for the first time all season four days earlier had swept the same opponent on its home floor.

You learn the most about a team after the worst night it has all year. On Wednesday, Pitt had that night. On Sunday, it showed everyone what it learned.

That's the part worth sitting with, because Wednesday had a way of drowning out everything else. SMU ended a 58-match home winning streak, and the reaction came quickly.

Some talked about a national title being out of reach. A few were ready to pencil in next year.

SMU picked that night to play some of its best volleyball of the season. Five Mustangs hit for double-digit kills. Natalia Newsome set a career high with 17 on .519 hitting. Jadyn Livings had a season-best 13. A third set that stretched to 38-36 showed how thin the margin really was.

Pitt didn't treat that as an excuse. It treated it as a challenge. Olivia Babcock made clear after the match that SMU hadn't shown this team anything it didn't already know.

"They showed us things that we knew were wrong with our game, but we just didn't fix," Babcock said. "Having another team give us the opportunity and beat us and really show us that those are the things that are going to hurt us in the future, I think that is something that we needed. It gives us a chance to respond and start streaking again."

The next step was to show how this group could respond.

That's what makes Dallas matter.

Start with the net. SMU won the block battle 12.5-6 six on Wednesday, and Favor Anyanwu alone had nine of those blocks. On Sunday, Pitt flipped it 13-6, and the nine belonged to Abbey Emch. Same number, opposite jersey.

Block #9 of the match forces an SMU timeout! https://t.co/IfGyp4kWXu
— Pitt Volleyball (@Pitt_VB) October 11, 2026

Suli Davis, who piled up 17 kills in the first meeting, finished with seven on .028 hitting. Five double-digit hitters became one.

That's a team that identified the holes and closed them in four days.

The first set said plenty. Pitt won it 25-12, and a team still shaken by a loss doesn't play like that.

But the third set is where you saw what the week had built. SMU led 24-20, four set points from forcing a fourth, and Pitt's answer came one point at a time.

Babcock got a kill to side out, which put Marina Pezelj behind the service line, and that turned out to be the key. Bayless and Emch combined on a block, and SMU called timeout. Bayless followed with a kill. Pezelj then served an ace to tie it at 24. Another SMU timeout didn't change anything. Babcock scored to give Pitt match point, and fittingly, it was Emch who stuffed Hannah Beauford to finish it.

Six straight points, and not one of them came from SMU's mistakes. Pitt took every one. The team that had lost control of a third set at home four days earlier was the one that closed this one out.

six-straight points to win it? SIX-STRAIGHT POINTS TO WIN IT?? https://t.co/uVIxvfX4lK
— Pitt Volleyball (@Pitt_VB) October 11, 2026

The stars showed up too. Olivia Babcock hit .567 with 20 kills. Blaire Bayless bounced back with 11. Izzy Starck ran the offense with 29 assists and still found five kills of her own. Pitt out-dug SMU 34-22.

It was arguably the most complete the Panthers have looked all season. And it came after the only loss of the year.

It would have been great to go undefeated, but it's also worth remembering how rare perfection is.

In the history of NCAA women's volleyball, only five teams have gone undefeated. Long Beach State in 1998. Nebraska in 2000. USC in 2003. Penn State in 2008 and again in 2009.

Some of the best programs the sport has ever seen have chased a flawless year and fallen short. A single loss in October doesn't erase what Pitt has built. It just puts the Panthers in the same company as nearly everybody else who has ever won big.

"I'd rather lose now than later," coach Dan Fisher said. "I'm glad to get that out of the way, and I'm excited to see how this team responds going into practice."

And the goals haven't gone anywhere.

At 15-1 overall and 5-1 in the ACC, Pitt sits tied with SMU and Miami for third in the league behind undefeated Louisville and North Carolina. One loss keeps Pitt firmly in the mix for a top-four national seed, which means hosting through the Final Four.

The schedule helps too. Only three ranked matches remain, North Carolina on Nov. 8, Louisville on Nov. 15 and a trip to Stanford on Nov. 24. The first two give Pitt a direct chance to control its own standing against the teams ahead of it, while SMU and Louisville still have to play each other twice.

Would this be a different conversation if Pitt hadn't responded the way it did in Dallas? Maybe. But that's the point. A season isn't one night. It's the long arc of how a team handles what comes at it.

Championship teams don't avoid bad nights. They answer them.

Pitt answered.