2025 NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

December 18, 2025

Dan Fisher

Olivia Babcock

Bre Kelley

T-Mobile Center

Pitt Panthers

Semifinal Press Conference

Texas A&M - 3

Pittsburgh - 0

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Pitt.

We'll start with an opening statement from coach.

DAN FISHER: I'll congratulate Texas A&M on a great run. They're playing really good volleyball at a good time.

Also want to just start by thanking the seniors on our team. They were great leaders all year. They were hard workers. They put in everything they could this season. I want to thank our administration for supporting us all year. The fans in Pittsburgh.

I guess the main story from a coaching standpoint is, we hit for a high enough percentage, that's for sure. If you would have told me we would hit .350, I would have been pretty pleased with that.

We were nowhere near as good as we needed to be defensively, especially when they were in system. We had them hitting over .500 on three passes. We trained it all week. I thought we were ready.

It's on me and on us as coaches. We just weren't good enough defensively tonight.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Olivia and Bre, I know it's not the result you wanted, but you fought from the beginning to the end. How proud are you of yourselves and the group as a whole?

BRE KELLEY: I mean, I'm very proud of them. I told them in the locker room this is one of the most special teams I've been on. I told every single one of them that every one of them are extraordinary young women. They showed that all year.

I'm severely proud of them and what we've done all season. From watching us from day one to now, no one would have known what we could have done.

Like Fish said, we didn't end the way we wanted to. But I'm still very proud of every single one of those girls.

OLIVIA BABCOCK: For me, I couldn't be more proud of this team. Making it to a Final Four is hard. Obviously, losing sucks, but I don't think there's anything shameful or bad about losing in a Final Four. I mean only four teams got to play today. We were grateful enough to be one of them.

Losing is always hard. I cannot be more proud of this group. I think we deserved to be here, so...

Q. Does this loss hurt differently than maybe last year's or even the year prior? If so, why?

OLIVIA BABCOCK: It always hurts the same. This is my last time playing with my best friend (tearing up). Yeah, it hurts a little harder this year.

BRE KELLEY: She said it.

Q. Bre, I noticed both of you out there on the court talking to each other the entire time. Bre, could you shed some light on what you were saying to one another and what you said to each other in the huddle?

BRE KELLEY: Honestly, the whole time we're just trying to make runs. We just kept telling each other, one point at a time, do our assignments like we've been practicing all week.

But it was really trying to amp each other up to get a few more runs in that match.

Q. Can y'all just kind of talk through the things that you were seeing on the court that y'all were trying to deal with, what your answers to them were trying to be?

OLIVIA BABCOCK: I mean, offensively we were great the entire night. Normally we're better at getting block touches and we are making more digs. Today I feel that we just weren't up to our standard.

Q. What are you going to take away most from this season?

BRE KELLEY: The relationships. I had one more year for Fish to grow me. He did a great job at it. I appreciate him for that.

Honestly just the relationships. No one really talks about that part of the game. I'll have friends forever from just this team, not all three teams I've been on. I'll take from those teams, as well, but just especially this team. The relationships truly mean a lot to me.

OLIVIA BABCOCK: The same. Definitely the relationships and the process of getting better with this team, getting to know them every single day, because we started from a different point than we did in previous years.

I feel like we just gelled together so well up until this point.

THE MODERATOR: Bre, Olivia, thanks so much.

We'll continue with questions for coach.

Q. What did Texas A&M get you off of what you were trying to accomplish?

DAN FISHER: We sided out the worst out-of-zone one all year. I've been wondering why more people haven't done that.

Q. I noticed for the third set you had an entirely different lineup. Why did you go with that lineup specifically?

DAN FISHER: Well, we put Izzy in the back row to try to get some more digs. Abbey was doing fine offensively. In fact, she was hitting a thousand. To see if Ryla could get a few more blocks.

At the time I think Marina started out pretty hot, but hadn't killed a ball in a while. Sophie is a really powerful attacker. So those were, like, I guess tactical decisions.

Also we were down 2-0. We're also just trying to get a lift and bring some energy, so... It was working for a little bit.

Q. Ending the season at this point again, what does it say about your team that every year they come back and keep attacking it?

DAN FISHER: Well, I don't have great perspective on that right now. Of course, I'm proud of being consistently good and consistently in the hunt. But I'm pretty pissed off about it right now.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.