2022 NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

December 15, 2022

Dan Fisher

Chiamaka Nwokolo

Courtney Buzzerio

CHI Health Center Arena

Pitt Panthers

Press Conference

Louisville d. Pitt

25-18, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-2

THE MODERATOR: We're joined now by Pittsburgh. Coach Fisher, please start with an opening statement.

COACH FISHER: Man, what a game. What a season these young women had. You know, we weren't quite up to our standards offensively. And our passing was streaky. So was theirs.

But I was just so proud of our heart in the fourth set. We just hung in there and found a way to win and it didn't go our way today but just incredibly proud of this group and especially the seniors.

Q. A common theme today was you guys would fall behind early, timeout would be taken, and all of a sudden a run would happen. What was discussed in those timeouts? It couldn't have just been all scheme, was it? Was it more motivation? What really happened there?

COACH FISHER: I don't know if it was the timeouts. We have a tough team. It's certainly better to start a set out in the lead. And falling behind didn't help us. But I just think we showed a lot of heart and a lot of ability to reset when things weren't going our way.

Q. What didn't go right for the Panthers in that fifth set?

COACH FISHER: Like I said, the serve pass was streaky. And Louisville had a very aggressive/risky serving plan. And it definitely worked in the fifth set and it will be interesting to see if that works against Texas.

Q. Courtney, in your one season with the Panthers, what will you take away from this experience?

COURTNEY BUZZERIO: It's crazy, I've only been here for seven months. It hasn't even been a whole year. But I think I've learned so much volleyball-wise about myself and just volleyball in general that I think I've grown as a player to hopefully now have a nice career professionally. I guess that starts now.

But I think the biggest thing is just caring for what I do and the people around me and how much that impacts me personally and then the team in general.

Q. Obviously there's a sting that comes with losing and ending your season, but was your team able to appreciate the success it had this season and how far it got after the loss? Was there any talk about pride in making it back to the Final Four?

CHIAMAKA NWOKOLO: Yeah, we did just talk about how our first stump was making it past the Sweet 16. Now our new trial and error is making it past the final four. It's not like a terrible problem to have.

Obviously we're struggling to have perspective right now, but we do have some pride about what we did this year and last year.

Q. The way that Louisville seemed to come around in terms of blocking, particularly in the last set and sort of the back end of the fourth set, I'm just curious what you make of what they were doing, what you were doing, how that sort of unfolded in that fashion? Were they blocking as many shots as they were?

COACH FISHER: It starts with our passing game. And we're a team that takes big rips. But when you're constantly swinging from 20 feet off the net, it's a challenge. And they got a few in the fifth. And it didn't go our way.