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No. 2 Pitt Set To Host Cal, No. 12 Stanford To Open ACC Play This Weekend
9/23/2026 11:36:00 AM | Volleyball
PITTSBURGH, PA. - No. 2 Pitt opens ACC play in its new home this weekend, welcoming Cal and No. 12 Stanford to Victory Heights. The Panthers and Stanford shared last year's ACC title and Pitt has stood atop the final ACC standings for four straight years (70-6 combined league record during that time frame).
Pitt enters the weekend set with 12 days off since playing six matches in nine days earlier in the month with matches in three different regions of the country (Utah, Florida and Pittsburgh). The Panthers will look to extend a 56-match home win streak, which is currently tied for the ninth longest in NCAA Division I history. The most recent three wins in that stretch came inside Victory Heights Arena, which opened in 2026 after the program moved out of Fitzgerald Field House.
PROMOTIONS
• For Friday night's match against Cal, Ace signs will be available.
• Sunday night's match against No. 12 Stanford is "Roc the Royal" (wear your blue!). Light-up rally towels will be available to fans.
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 best record in NCAA Division I women's volleyball since the start of the 2021 season with a mark of 163-20 (.891). That includes a record of 85-9 (.904) in ACC matches.
• In non-conference play, Pitt has gone undefeated three times in the past six years, doing so in both 2021 (11-0), 2024 (10-0) and 2026 (10-0).
• Pitt has not lost an ACC match at home since dropping a four-set contest to then-No. 1 Louisville on Nov. 24, 2021.
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 (.845).
• Fisher, in fact, is fourth among all coaches in NCAA Division I history (minimum five years) in winning percentage.
THREE ARENAS. 56 STRAIGHT WINS.
• Apparently, home is where the wins are. Pitt currently owns the nation's longest home win streak, having posted 56 consecutive wins dating back to Sept. 14, 2023. That streak is tied for the ninth longest in NCAA Division I history.
• In fact, Pitt has won 58 straight inside the Pittsburgh city limits, having won two "neutral site" matches at PPG Paints Arena in 2025.
• In ACC competition, Pitt has won 38 straight home matches, dating back to a four-set loss to then-No. 1 Louisville inside Fitzgerald Field House.
• Among that 56-match win streak is 36 matches inside Fitzgerald Field House, 17 inside the Petersen Events Center and a streak of three inside the brand new Victory Heights Arena.
• Pitt is yet to drop a set inside Victory Heights Arena after sweeping three matches Sept. 11-13 in the Panther Challenge. High Point came close to taking a set from Pitt, leading 23-20 in the third. But the Panthers scored five straight to close out the match.
• Petersen Events Center has been good to Pitt and the Panthers have won a total of 23 straight matches in the facility stretching back to 2019.
• And it's not like Pitt is playing cupcakes inside Petersen Events Center. All 23 of those matches were either NCAA Tournament contests (14 of the matches) or against ranked opponents during the regular season (the other nine). Including all of those matches, Pitt has beaten 15 ranked teams during the 23-match win streak and three that were ranked inside the top four in the country.
• In fact, Pitt has lost just 14 sets during that 23-match win streak and has been pushed to five sets just four times (2022 vs. #13 Georgia Tech, 2023 vs. #4 Louisville, 2024 vs. #4 Louisville, 2024 vs. #14 Oregon).
• Pitt has not lost in the Petersen Events Center since Dec. 7, 2019 when it fell to Cincinnati in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• In another win streak trends, Pitt's 10-match winning streak overall is tied for the longest in the country, along with four other teams. The Panthers' four-match road win streak is tied for ninth longest in the NCAA heading into the weekend as well.
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.
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.
HERE WE GO AGAIN
• One year after rewriting Pitt's single-season kills record, Olivia Babcock is once again putting the mark in her sights.
• She had 149 kills through the first ten matches of the 2025 season and eventually broke the school's single-season record. She has 164 kills through ten matches this year, putting her on record watch once again.
• Listed below are Babcock's kill totals a year ago.
NO STARCK CONTRAST
• There's nothing stark about the consistency Izzy Starck has brought to Pitt's lineup. The junior setter ranks No. 10 in the country in assists per set and she has recorded five double-doubles thus far in 2026.
• The 2024 AVCA Freshman of the Year and a national champion at Penn State, Starck has averaged 10.88 assists per set during her career, which ranks second among active players across the entirety of the NCAA. She is averaging 10.91 assists per set in her first year with the Panthers.
• Starck is guiding an offense that is hitting .330 on the season -- fifth in all of NCAA Division I -- behind only Michigan State, Maryland, UCF and Vanderbilt. 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. During the team's current 15-set win streak, the Panthers have hit .401.
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 3.24 kills per set, 2.03 digs per set, 0.62 blocks per set and 3.57 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.
D-FENCE
• Head Coach Dan Fisher said this could be the best defensive team he's coached. Ten matches in, the numbers are making the case.
• Pitt has outdug all ten of its opponents in 2026, averaging 6.1 per match more than their opponents.
• Up front, Pitt ranks No. 7 nationally (No. 1 in the ACC) in blocks at 2.97 per set. Freshman Maaike Heilig is 16th in the country at 1.52 blocks per set.
• All of that adds up to a .154 attack percentage for opponents this year, ranking Pitt No. 17 in the country and second in the ACC despite playing five top 25 teams through the first ten matches.
IF I COULD BE LIKE MAAIKE
• Maaike Heilig is making it hard to believe she's a freshman.
• While six Pitt players have at least 21 blocks through the first ten matches of the season, none has been as physically imposing as Heilig in guiding the Panthers to 2.97 blocks per set, seventh-most in the country.
• Heilig has 47 blocks (1.52 per set) and has recorded at least five blocks six times. The 1.52 blocks per set ranks No. 16 in the country and is first nationally among freshmen.
• She opened her collegiate career with a run of four straight matches with at least five kills. Heilig had a career-high eight blocks in her debut against Kentucky, posted five in back-to-back wins over Xavier and Kansas, and then had seven in the sweep of Wisconsin.
• Along with the defensive numbers, she is hitting .441 on the season and has added four service aces.
