No. 2 Pitt Sweeps No. 12 Stanford To Move To 12-0

Sunday, September 27

Pittsburgh, Pa.

8:30 PM

Pitt

12-0,2-0ACC

Stanford

7-5,0-2ACC

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Stanford	21	23	21	0
Pittsburgh	25	25	25	3

No. 2 Pitt Sweeps No. 12 Stanford To Move To 12-0

9/27/2026 11:08:00 PM | Volleyball

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PITTSBURGH – Olivia Babcock had 20 kills, Trinity Thompson posted a career-high 14 digs and the Panther defense totaled 11.5 blocks as the No. 2 Pitt volleyball team swept No. 12 Stanford 25-21, 25-23, 25-21 Sunday night. The match was televised nationally on ESPN and featured the top two teams in the ACC preseason poll. Pitt improved to 12-0 overall and 2-0 in ACC play with the win, while Stanford fell to 7-5 and 0-2 in league action.

SET ONE

Neither team led by more than two early but Stanford took a 15-13 lead midway through the set.
Pitt answered with three straight points to force a Stanford timeout.
Tied at 18-18, Abbey Emch and Olivia Babcock had back-to-back kills as Pitt took a 20-18 advantage.
Stanford cut the deficit in half but Babcock added two more kills in succession for a 22-19 lead and forcing the Cardinal to use its final timeout of the set.
Out of the break, Maaike Heilig hammered home a pass from Izzy Starck to give the Panthers a four-point lead.
At 24-21, Blaire Bayless finessed home the set-winning point.

SET TWO

Tied at 8-8, Pitt went on a 3-0 run, punctuated by an Abbey Emch kill on an overpass. Stanford used a timeout to slow the momentum.
Stanford battled back to tie the score at 13-13 as Pitt burnt a timeout.
Pitt rebuilt its lead, going ahead 18-15 after back-to-back kills from Olivia Babcock and Ayanna Watson.
Following another Stanford timeout, Babcock posted her 14^th kill of the match for a four-point advantage.
Stanford would not go away and the Cardinal tied it at 23-23 on back-to-back kills.
Izzy Starck made a phenomenal set to set assist a Blaire Bayless kill and the Panthers closed out the frame 25-23.

SET THREE

Stanford opened the third with three straight points, Pitt's largest deficit of the match.
The Panthers, though, answered with four straight on two kills and two assisted blocks by Olivia Babcock. Blaire Bayless and Abbey Emch made it 6-3 with two more blocks.
Pitt's lead ballooned to six at 15-9 but Stanford chipped away at the deficit to get within three at 18-15.
Stanford got to within two at 22-20, forcing Pitt to use a timeout. Out of the break, the Cardinal got a kill to make it 22-21 and Pitt Head Coach Dan Fisher immediately used another timeout.
Babcock settled things down with a kill, followed by a block from Emch and Bayless that made it 24-21. Bayless closed out the match with a kill for the sweep.

NOTABLE

Olivia Babcock posted her third 20-kill match of the season, adding nine digs, four blocks and two assists for the Panthers.
Blaire Bayless added 11 kills on a .333 attack percentage, along with three digs and two blocks.
Izzy Starck finished with a double-double with 31 assists and 10 digs. She also had four blocks and posted three kills on three attacks.
Trinity Thompson recorded a career-best 14 digs, tying the individual match high for any Pitt player this year.
Maaike Heilig had a team-high six blocks and she served up the team's only ace of the contest.
Pitt hit .325 as a team and held Stanford to .228 attacking. The Panthers' 11.5 blocks were 5.5 more than Stanford as well.
The Panthers beat a ranked opponent for the sixth time this year.
Pitt improved to 2-5 all-time against Stanford.
Pitt is now 5-0 inside Victory Heights and has not lost a set in the building. In total, the Panthers have won 21 consecutive sets since dropping the first set at Utah on Sept. 6.
Pitt won its 58^th consecutive home match, tying Florida (1990-94) for the seventh longest in NCAA Division I history.
At 12-0, Pitt has the fifth-longest unbeaten streak to start a season in program history, tying the mark of the 1983 squad. The 2018 team holds the program record at 23-0.
Babcock went over 200 kills on the season. She sits at 202 through 12 matches, two more than her total through 12 matches a year ago when she broke the program's single-season record.

UP NEXT

Pitt will hit the road to face Boston College (10-3, 1-1 ACC) Friday at 7 p.m.
The Panthers will then close the road trip at Syracuse (5-6, 0-2 ACC) Sunday at 1 p.m.