Pitt Volleyball Duo Named to NPOY Watch List

PITTSBURGH — Two Pitt Panthers volleyball players come into next season amongst the best in the nation.

Pitt junior right side hitter Olivia Babcock and redshirt senior middle blocker Bre Kelley both earned a spot on the AVCA National Player of the Year Watch List.

Babcock and Kelley are two of 10 players announced July 22, with two more groups of 10 announced on July 23 and July 24, respectively, with 30 players making the AVCA National Player of the Year Watch List.

The other eight players in the first group of 10 include senior outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette and setter Maggie Li from UCLA, Creighton senior outside hitter Ava Martin, Oklahoma senior outside hitter Alexis Shelton, sophomore setter Izzy Starck and junior right side hitter Kennedy Martin from Penn State and both senior middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Opalka and senior right side hitter Logan Lednicky of Texas A&M.

Babcock is the reigning AVCA National Player of the Year, becoming the first ever player in program history that did so. She also won both AVCA East Coast Region Player of the Year andACC Player of the Year and was an AVCA First Team All-American for the second straight season.

She is also the only second Pitt player to win ACC Player of the Year Award, as former outside hitter Kayla Lund won in back-to-back seasons in 2019 and 2020.

Babcock finished the regular season ranked second in the country with .69 aces per set, fourth with 5.87 points per set and No. 16 with 4.54 kills per set, while leading the ACC in all three categories. She also ranked tied for ninth in the ACC with a .328 hitting percentage, No. 8 in the conference with 1.19 blocks per set and averaged 1.76 digs per set.

Her 71 service aces on the season easily broke the program record in a single season in the 25-point scoring era (2008-Present) and also broke the program record in a single season all-time, of 67.

Babcock earned two AVCA National Player of the Week honors last season for her great play, doing so first after sweeps of Cal on Oct. 18 and then ranked No. 5 Stanford on Oct. 20, and then the sweeps of then ranked No. 22 Florida State on Nov. 15 and Miami on Nov. 17, with all games coming at home.

One of her best games of the season came against Boston College on the road on Oct. 4, a four-set victory.

Babcock finished with a triple-double, with 14 kills, 12 service aces and 10 digs in the victory. This was the first triple-double for her at Pitt and the first for the program since Rachel Fairbanks had 10 kills, 28 assists and 13 digs in the sweep over BYU In the Second Round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament at the Petersen Events Center.

Those 12 service aces set the record for the most in a single match in Pitt history and were the most for a player in single match last season.

Babcock also had a triple-double in the last match of the regular season, a five-set thriller over then ranked No. 19 Georgia Tech at home on Nov. 30. She finished with 18 kills, 12 digs and a career-high 10 blocks in the victory.

She had an incredible performance against No. 4 Oregon in the Sweet 16, with 31 kills, setting a new program record in the NCAA Tournament.

Babcock then broke that record with 33 kills in the loss to Louisville in the Final Four at the KFC Yum! Center, which set the program record for both kills in an NCAA Tournament match and in the 25-point scoring era, while also ranking No. 6 in a match all-time in program history.

She played with the USA National Team this summer at the Volleyball Nations League (VNL), alongside Pitt alums in middle blocker Serena Gray (2021-22) and setter Rachel Fairbanks (2021-24), who were both AVCA First Team All-Americans.

Kelley joined Pitt in 2023 after transferring from Florida, but suffered a season-ending ankle injury just four games in, making her 2024 season even more impressive in her return.

She ranked third in the ACC and eighth in Division I with 1.49 blocks per set and led Pitt with a .497 hitting percentage, which set a program record. Her 144 block assists tied for fourth most in program history and her 155 total blocks ranked 10th best.

Kelley also ranked third best for her blocks per set in progarm history in the 25-point scoring era (2008-present), while her block assists tied for second most and her total blocks ranked fifth most in that time period.

She earned AVCA Second Team All-American and All-ACC First Team honors for her play in 2024.

Kelley will team up again with sophomore Ryla Jones, making for one of the best middle blocker duos in the nation.