It was another defeat at the hands of a formidable ACC opponent on Sunday for Boston College volleyball, which failed to surpass 20 points in its fourth, fifth, and sixth straight sets.
No. 4 Pittsburgh (24–4, 16–2 Atlantic Coast), currently riding a four-year Final Four appearance streak, dominated in its 3–0 sweep of BC (16–14, 5–13) on Sunday afternoon.
Audrey Ross’ kill early in the first set kept it tied at five, but a 6–1 run from the Panthers set them up with a comfortable lead for the remainder of the set.
BC’s kill leader added 11 more to her total on Friday, with four of those coming in the first set.
Attack errors from Sofija Marjanovic and Anna Herrington pushed Pitt’s lead to 15–8. Two straight kills from Marina Pezelj extended its lead further, and two service aces and Olivia Babcock’s kill capped off a 25–16 first set win.
Marjanovic’s kill to open up the second set was answered right back by a kill from Babcock. Pezelj’s attacking error had BC at a 2–1 lead—it’s only lead the remainder of the matchup.
The Panthers fired off six straight points, which Ross and Lucy Mott responded to with back-to-back kills. Pezelj, Ross, and Babcock traded kill-for-kill, and Pitt held onto an 11–6 lead.
Pitt’s Pezelj and Babcock combined for 21 of its squad’s 43 kills, and Sophia Gregoire added 10 of her own.
Ending the second set with a score of 25–17, BC needed to piece something together heading into the final frame.
But it was too little too late. The third time was not the charm for the Eagles, either.
In fact, nothing really changed within BC’s performance.
The Panthers started the final set just about as dominant as any other, with a Bre Kelley kill giving BC the upper hand out of the gate.
While the Eagles managed to edge within two points of the Panthers after a Brooke Mosher service error, that was not enough.
A 5–0 run for Pittsburgh didn’t make matters any better when a Babcock kill capped off a streak for the Panthers, bringing the score to 22–16.
While Ross and Sam Hoppes were able to put up two kills in BC’s final points of the night, it didn’t amount to anything.
Kelley ended the set the same way she began it—she notched her fifth and final kill of the night.
The Eagles’ struggles in conference play didn’t get better, as BC dropped its fifth straight ACC matchup.
