PITTSBURGH – The No. 1 seed University of Pittsburgh volleyball team (26-4, 16-2 ACC) swept Coppin State (27-5, 13-1 MEAC) 3-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night at the Petersen Events Center. This is the eighth straight season the Panthers have advanced to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32.
The Panthers got out to a slow start at the beginning of the first set, as Coppin State took an early 6-2 lead. A Pitt 7-2 run behind the serve of Torrey Stafford gave Pitt its first lead of the set, up 9-8. After a pair of Eagle points, Rachel Fairbanks continued firing on all cylinders, earning an ace and setting Stafford and Babcock to a kill, as they sustained the lead at 13-10. Despite a reception error and hitting error, Pitt went into the media timeout up 15-12. A 3-0 Valeria Vazquez Gomez service run caused Coppin State to take a timeout. The Panthers kept their foot on the gas for the rest of the way and took the first set, 25-18.
Pitt took the momentum from the first set into the second, fueling a 9-2 lead behind a pair of Vazquez Gomez kills and a trio of Eagle hitting errors. Coppin State continued to scrap as the two teams traded points back and forth, but the Eagles were unable to create any scoring runs. A 7-2 run from Pitt and a pair of tough serves from Dillyn Griffin and kills from freshman Blaire Bayless ended the second set, giving Pitt the 25-14 win.
Like set two, Pitt continued to dominate early, as Cat Flood and Stafford’s tough serving forced Coppin State to take a timeout at 10-4. Stafford did not let up, creating six more Pitt points before a…
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