University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt
Tennessee
Historic Week Awaits As No. 2 Pitt Faces No. 17 Tennessee, Opens Victory Heights
9/8/2026 7:21:00 AM | Volleyball
PITTSBURGH - With a historic week ahead, the No. 2 Pitt volleyball team focuses its attention on four matches in five days this week as the Panthers face No. 17 Tennessee at ESPN's Wide World of Sports before hosting the Panther Challenge and officially opening Victory Heights Arena. Pitt's match with Tennessee is part of the Shriners Children's Showdown at the Net and will be televised on ESPN2, while Pitt will welcome Jacksonville, High Point and Wright State to Victory Heights over the weekend.
Pitt is 6-0 on the season with four wins over ranked opponents, looking for a fifth against No. 17 Tennessee. The Panthers are in the midst of a nine-day stretch in which it plays six matches in three different regions of the country. Pitt already posted wins over then-No. 24 BYU and Utah in the Beehive State during the stretch.
PROMOTIONS
• On Friday, a recognition of the 2025 Final Four team will be held and Final Four rally towels will be given out.
• On Sunday, the volleyball team will hold a postgame autograph session.
SCOUTING TENNESSEE
• No. 17 Tennessee is off to a 5-0 start and has not dropped a set along the way. The Lady Volunteers most recently swept Illinois in the Big Ten/SEC Challenge and No. 21 Indiana in the Broadway Block Party.
• Tennessee ranks No. 1 in the country in kills (15.27 per set), No. 2 in hitting percentage (.353) and No. 14 in opponent's hitting percentage (.127).
• Sophomore outside hitter Kennedi Rogers ranks second nationally in kills (5.67 per set) and points (6.29 per set), while fifth-year senior setter Carolina Kerr makes the engine run. She averages 11.27 assists per set, sixth in the nation.
• Head Coach Eve Rackham Watt has led the Tennessee program since 2018 with a record of 156-76 over those nine seasons. The program has played in five straight NCAA Tournaments and advanced as far as the Sweet Sixteen.
SCOUTING JACKSONVILLE
• Jacksonville has opened 2026 by splitting its first six matches. The team took 2-of-3 matches on the opening weekend at the Gamecock Classic before losing 2-of-3 at home in the Dolphin Volleyball Classic.
• As a team, Jacksonville is No. 10 in the country at 2.43 service aces per set. The Dolphins are also No. 46 in attack percentage (.266) and No. 51 in blocks (2.57 per set).
• Freshman outside hitter Jaylyn Tuiasosopo leads the team in service aces at 0.62 per set (No. 37 in the country). Redshirt freshman Addison Krieger is No. 78 in blocks at 1.28 per set.
• Head Coach Alicia Manguiat (Roth) is in her third season at Jacksonville with a career record of 40-25. She was named ASun Coach of the Year in 2025, placing second in the league during the regular season.
SCOUTING HIGH POINT
• High Point is 3-2 to open the 2026 season, most recently going 2-0 at Liberty Mountain Madness with victories over Lamar and Liberty. Among High Point's two losses is a hard-fought five-set loss to then-No. 10 Penn State.
• Sophomore middle blocker Maya Bukovcan leads a potent block, ranking No. 32 nationally with 1.48 per set. She also leads the team in hitting percentage (.392). Sophomore defensive specialist Sydney McKay is a dangerous server, averaging 0.52 aces per set.
• Head Coach Ryan Meek is in his ninth season leading High Point. He is 126-67 in his time there and has a career record of 236-131 following five seasons leading Hendrix College.
SCOUTING WRIGHT STATE
• Wright State is 3-3 on the season, playing all six matches at home. The Raiders are coming off of a five-set win over Dayton, following losses to Western Kentucky and Ball State.
• Offensively, Wright State averages 13.73 kills per set, No. 37 nationally. But the Raiders also play solid defense, averaging 14.82 digs per set, No. 56 in the country.
• Senior outside hitter Mya Ayro does it all for Wright State, ranking No. 34 in the country in kills (4.15 per set) and No. 36 in points (4.68 per set). Senior setter Lauren Yacobucci ranks No. 50 in the country in assists at 9.86 per set.
• Head Coach Travers Green is 97-36 in his fifth season at Wright State, winning Horizon League Coach of the Year honors in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
HARD TO BEAT
• Pitt has the best record in NCAA Division I women's volleyball since the start of the 2021 season with a mark of 159-20 (.888). That includes a record of 53-6 (.898) in regular season non-conference contests.
• In non-conference play, Pitt has gone undefeated twice in the last five years, doing so in both 2021 (11-0) and 2024 (10-0). The Panthers are 6-0 thus far in 2026.
• Pitt is 20-5 against ranked opponents in non-conference play since the start of 2021 and 33-1 against unranked teams, only losing a four-set match in 2022 to a criminally unranked Towson squad that went 29-2 on the season.
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
• Pitt currently has the nation's longest home win streak, having posted 53 consecutive wins dating back to Sept. 14, 2023. That total ranks 11th in NCAA Division I history.
• In fact, Pitt has won 55 straight inside the Pittsburgh city limits, having won two "neutral site" matches at PPG Paints Arena in 2025.
• Pitt is one of only eight programs in NCAA Division I history to have a home win streak of at least 53 matches.
• Among that 53-match win streak is 36 matches inside Fitzgerald Field House and 17 inside the Petersen Events Center.
• Pitt will hope to add a third home venue to that win streak when the program plays its first official match inside their new home Victory Heights on Sept. 11.
• Petersen Events Center has been good to Pitt and the Panthers have won 23 straight matches in the facility dating 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.
OUR RECORD BREAKER
• Olivia Babcock broke Pitt's single-season kills record 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.
ON PACE FOR MORE...
• Olivia Babcock had 95 kills through the first six matches of the 2025 season and eventually broke the school's single-season record. She has 109 kills through six matches this year, already putting her on record watch again.
• Pitt will play four matches this week, so listed below are Babcock's kill totals a year ago.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE
• Junior setter Izzy Starck is off to a fast start in her first season at Pitt. She has had double-doubles in 5-of-6 matches to start the season.
• Starck reached double-double status in assists and digs in each of the first four matches of the season and then did so again Sunday at Utah. She had a season-best 13 digs in the win over Kentucky and a season-best 50 assists at No. 24 BYU.
• Starck has had just one other stretch of four straight double-doubles in her career. Those came in the final four matches of Penn State's national championship 2024 season.
D-FENCE
• Head Coach Dan Fisher has made the claim that this Pitt team could be the best defensive team of his coaching career. So far, the Panthers are proving him right.
• Pitt has outdug all six of its opponents in 2026, averaging 5.5 per match more than their opponents.
• Up front, Pitt has outblocked 4-of-6 opponents and ranks No. 13 nationally in blocks per set. The Panthers are averaging 3.4 more blocks per set than opponents this year.
• All of that adds up to a .167 attack percentage for opponents this year, ranking Pitt No. 64 in the country despite playing four top 25 teams through the first six matches.
IF I COULD BE LIKE MAAIKE
• Six Pitt players have at least 14 blocks through the first six matches of the season, but none of them have been quite as much of a terror as freshman Maaike Heilig.
• Heilig has 31 blocks (1.41 per set) through the first six matches of her career and has recorded at least five blocks in four of those contests. The 1.41 blocks per set rank among the top 50 nationally and sixth among all freshmen.
• She 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 .511 on the season which included 12 kills on 15 swings (with just one error) in the two-match trip to Utah.
