The ending perhaps was fitting for Courtney Buzzerio. In Pitt’s biggest moment of the season — the fifth set of a regional final against defending national champion Wisconsin on the Badgers’ home floor — it was Buzzerio who delivered the knockout blow.
Four years of frustration obliterated in a single moment.
Her kill gave the Panthers a 15-13 win and sent them to the NCAA semifinals for the second straight season. Pitt (31-3) will face ACC co-champion Louisville (30-2) at 9 p.m. Eastern Thursday in Omaha, Nebraska, for a spot in the final against the winner of the San Diego-Texas semifinal.
Buzzerio had kills to score three of the Panthers’ final four points and finished the match against Wisconsin with 18 kills. In Pitt’s four-set win over Florida in the regional semi, the 6-foot-5 product of Chino Hills, California, had 19 kills, five blocks, an ace and a team-high eight digs.
Buzzerio had plenty of experience against Wisconsin. She played her first four years in the Big Ten for Iowa. This time?
“They (Wisconsin) were very comfortable with me,” Buzzerio said. “They scouted me very well, (coach Kelly) Sheffield and the players did a great job of executing their game plan against me.
“Throughout the match, the kills didn’t come as easy for me as I would have hoped for or how they have in past matches. I just had to muscle my way through blocks, just kind of work through it … That’s a testament to (setter) Rachel (Fairbanks) still trusting me in those types of moments.”
They were moments Buzzerio had not been able to relish before. Iowa won only 17 matches over her final three seasons — none against Wisconsin.
What would have been her most successful season with the Hawkeyes, 2018, when she was a seldom-used freshman, didn’t count. Iowa had to vacate its 15 wins from 2018 — and 18 wins from 2017 — when it was discovered that coach Bond Shymansky had given illegal benefits to a transfer.
One of those vacated wins in 2018 was against Wisconsin. The Badgers swept the Hawkeyes in each of their four subsequent meetings during Buzzerio’s time in Iowa City. (The teams didn’t play each other in the pandemic-altered 2020-21 season.)
“Just winning (in Madison) would be a big thing,” she said. “But with the stakes so high, it was even sweeter.”
What a difference a season makes.
Under coach Dan Fisher, Buzzerio has become one of the top right-side hitters in the nation, hitting…
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