PITTSBURGH – The No. 3 Pitt volleyball team (19-3, 11-1 ACC) returns to the Fitzgerald Field House to play Virginia Tech (10-13, 2-10 ACC) on Friday night at 6 p.m. and Virginia (10-12, 3-9 ACC) on Sunday at noon. The matches can be streamed on ACCNX and ACC Network, respectively.

The Panthers hold a 16-6 all-time advantage over Virginia Tech and have won 10 straight in the series. Olivia Babcock recorded 18 kills, seven digs and two blocks against the Hokies last year to lead Pitt.

Pitt is 19-3 against Virginia and has won 12 straight matches. Seven Panthers recorded at least one kill last year against the Cavaliers in Charlottesville, and Pitt held Virginia to less than 10 points in two of the three sets. The Panthers haven’t lost to either opponent since 2015.

HISTORIC. AGAIN.

• Olivia Babcock broke her own program record with 45 kills against North Carolina on Sunday afternoon.

• That kill total is the most in NCAA Division I volleyball since Cincinnati’s Jordan Thompson had 50 against UConn on Nov. 3, 2019.

• Babcock has recorded at least 25 kills seven times this season and has three 30+ kills to her name in 2025 and four in her career.

• Her previous record was 41 kills set against rival Louisville on Oct. 19.

DYNAMIC DUO 

• Olivia Babcock and Brooke Mosher earned ACC Offensive Player of the Week and ACC Setter of the Week, respectively.

• The duo has combined for eight ACC weekly accolades, with Babcock at five and Mosher at three.

• Babcock continued her dominance last week, averaging 7.88 points per set, 6.88 kills per set, 1.75 digs per set and 1.25 blocks per set in wins over Duke and then-No. 21 North Carolina.

• Mosher paced the Pitt offense by averaging 10.88 assists per set and 2.63 digs per set in two wins this past weekend.

RACKING UP RANKED WINS

• The Panthers earned their eighth ranked win of the season against then-No. 21 North Carolina on Sunday.

• They boast an 8-3 record against top 25 opponents. 

• Pitt and Nebraska are tied for second in the nation with eight ranked wins right behind Texas, who has nine. 

MEYER MAGIC

• Mallorie Meyer had a career day against North Carolina.

• The sophomore libero recorded a personal-best 21 digs and 10 assists to lead Pitt’s back court defense.

• Meyer and the Panthers held the Tar Heels to a .180 clip.

SWEEPS ON SWEEPS

• The Panthers swept both NC State and Wake Forest.

• Marina Pezelj had a match-high 12 kills on Friday night against the Wolfpack, tying her career high. 

• Mallorie Meyer recorded a  then career-high 11 digs, her second double-digit dig outing in three matches.

• Olivia Babcock notched a match-high 16 kills on a .560 hitting percentage to round out the weekend against Wake Forest.

MARINA ON A TEAR

• Freshman outside hitter Marina Pezelj has stepped in due to a Dagmar Mourits injury and is thriving.

• She tied her career high with 12 kills, a match best, in three sets against NC State while hitting .381 with eight digs, a personal best five blocks, an ace and an assist.

• Pezelj followed that up with eight kills on a .286 hitting percentage, five digs, a career-high three aces, a block and an assist against Wake Forest.

PLAYED OUR CARDS RIGHT

• Pitt came back from being down two sets to one to defeat rival Louisville in the L&N Federal Credit Union Arena.

• Olivia Babcock set a new program record with 41 kills while hitting .423, and Brooke Mosher recorded a career-high 60 assists to pace the Panthers to a .313 team hitting percentage. 

• Mallorie Meyer notched 10 digs and seven assists, and Blaire Bayless also registered a career-high eight digs. 

• Babcock made an appearance on NFL Countdown to help preview the top-10 rivalry match. 

SURVIVED IN FIVE

• The Panthers earned a gritty five-set win over Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

• Olivia Babcock had a match-high 29 kills, and Marina Pezelj enjoyed a career day with 17 digs and 12 kills. 

• Pitt is currently 4-2 in five set matches this year.

HISTORY MADE!

• Olivia Babcock was named the AVCA National Player of the Week after setting a new program record with 41 kills in the five-set victory over then-No. 4 Louisville.

• She became just the second player to earn four weekly national awards in a career, tying Minnesota’s Stephanie Samedy for the all-time mark. 

• Babcock rewrote the previous record of 37 set by Ann Marie Lucanie against Auburn on 9/13/91.

• She is the only player in the NCAA to record at least 40 kills in a single match this season and the fourth to reach that milestone since 2019. 

STAT STUFFER

• Olivia Babcock  is currently second in the nation in points per set (6.07), tied for second in kills per set (5.24) and fourth in total points (504) and total kills (435). 

• Bre Kelley is 17th in blocks per set (1.41).

• Brooke Mosher is 36th in total assists (843) and 44th in assists per set (9.92).

ACC AWARDS KEEP ROLLIN’ IN 

• Olivia Babcock earned her fourth ACC Offensive Player of the Week award of the season (10/20).

• This marks the 14th ACC weekly honor of her career (8 Offensive Player of the Week and 6 Freshman of the Week)

DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE

• Olivia Babcock has recorded a team best eight double-doubles so far this season. 

• Six of them have come in the last 13 matches, including a career-high 17 dig performance against No. 11 SMU.

• Her 2.18 digs per set this season is a personal best, improving  upon her 1.82 digs per set her sophomore year.

Virginia election officials are still counting ballots, but so far, Jason Miyares has about 120,000 more votes than his Republican ticket-mate Winsome Earle-Sears.

While Miyares, the Republican incumbent attorney general, still lost his race by nearly 6 points, it shows at least some voters split their tickets. Miyares’ opponent, Democrat Jay Jones, overcame the scandal that became the focal point of the race, after old text messages from Jones surfaced that suggested a former Republican House speaker should get “two bullets to the head” and the lawmaker’s children should die in his wife’s arms.

NBC News exit polls showed 40% of voters felt those texts were disqualifying — but in the end, it didn’t seem to matter.

That same data shows that most of that 40% voted for Miyares.

But still, experts said Wednesday they feel that we’re witnessing a new age in Virginia politics, in which most voters are willing to excuse otherwise inexcusable behavior — as long as the bad actor is on your side of the aisle.

Jones earned nearly 170,000 fewer votes than Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, which could suggest the text message scandal had some effect but not enough to cost him the race, which he still won handily by nearly 6 points.

“We will use tonight as a springboard to reject the politics of divisiveness and division and we will build a brighter future for every single Virginian,” Jones said on Election Night.

This race was the most expensive attorney general’s race in American history, and ad spending really took off once the text message scandal emerged.

Stephen Farnsworth of the University of Mary Washington feels that party allegiance is too strong, and given the current environment, he thinks just about any Democrat could have won a statewide race this year.

“The last decade has been marked by a significant decline in what is acceptable behavior.  We now have a very low bar in terms of anything that may be disqualifying,” Farnsworth said.

Outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin suggested Wednesday the text message scandal isn’t going to disappear.

“The next administration is going to have to figure out how to deal with that, because they have law enforcement that they’re going to need to make sure feel good about doing the job,” Youngkin said.

But Jeremy Mayer, a political science professor at George Mason University, doesn’t believe this issue will matter much moving forward.

“With Donald Trump and his admission of sexual assault in the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, I think we learned we’re in a different world,” Mayer said. “A lot of Republicans in that moment said, ‘Oh, he’s going to lose!’ and the speaker of the House withdrew his support and Trump won. And that tells you something about polarization, and Jay Jones rode that same horse of polarization to victory last night.”

When asked if he thinks the electorate spoke loudly enough Tuesday night or if he thinks the incoming administration will need to address the text messages, Mayer responded: “Did Donald Trump have to deal with the ‘Access Hollywood’ video after he was elected?  He was washed clean in the water of the election, and that’s what happened to Jay Jones.”

By 10 p.m. on election night, just three hours after polls closed, Democrats had flipped nearly one dozen seats from Republican incumbents.

By 11:30 p.m., they had picked up two more. 

The party picked up seats from the city of Roanoke to Petersburg to Spotsylvania County and Northern Virginia and others, after they knocked out incumbents in 13 districts. 

House of Delegates District 41 was among those that flipped from red to blue. Democratic challenger Lily Franklin had a 2.46 percentage point lead over incumbent Republican Del. Chris Obenshain, of Montgomery County, by 10:45 p.m.

This year’s race for the 41st District was a rematch between Obenshain and Franklin after the latter lost by 183 votes in 2023 once provisional ballots were counted. That race was not called until nearly one week after Election Day. 

“Lily Franklin ran a spirited campaign. She earned a lot of votes, and she has earned my respect,” Obenshain said in his concession statement. “Tonight was a setback not just for me, but also for the causes I have championed and the people I have sought to represent. Ultimately though, the voters have the final word and while this result is disappointing, I respect their decision tonight.”

In a statement released Tuesday evening, Franklin said, “I’m deeply honored by the trust the people of the 41st District have placed in me. Folks are ready for new leadership.”

“Virginians turned out in force to support candidates who embody the very best of who we are – champions of fairness and truth over the forces of bigotry and deceit,” state Sen. Lamont Bagby, chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said in a statement. 

Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger will enter office with a trifecta, with the governor’s seat, the state Senate and House of Delegates all under the same party. She will be the first Democratic governor to do so in nearly 40 years, according to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

“Democrats, we’re back,” said House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott during a speech in Richmond on election night. “Tonight we shocked the world.”

The Portsmouth Democrat added that Virginia sent a message of love and unity over hate and division to the country. 

“We just made history tonight. … Not only did we keep the majority in the House tonight, I think we’re at 57 seats. And we’re not done counting,” he said just before 10 p.m. on election night.

Here’s how the rest of Virginia’s Southwest and Southside House of Delegates races shook out

The political makeup of Southwest and Southside Virginia remained largely unchanged. 

Most incumbents held onto their seats, and new Republican candidates for open seats in districts 46 and 49 won their elections: Mitchell Cornett won Del. Jed Arnold’s seat, and Madison Whittle won Del. Danny Marshall’s seat. Arnold, of Smyth County, did not seek reelection, citing his wife’s health concerns. Marshall, of Danville, declined to seek reelection to undergo lung transplant surgery. He is currently recovering from that surgery. 

District 35 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Chris Runion, Rockingham County

District 36 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Ellen Campbell, Waynesboro

District 37 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Terry Austin, Botetourt County 

District 38 winner: incumbent Democratic Del. Sam Rasoul, Roanoke

District 39 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Will Davis, Franklin County

District 40 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Joe McNamara, Roanoke County

District 41 winner: Democratic challenger Lily Franklin (seat flipped)

District 42 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Jason Ballard, Giles County

District 43 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Will Morefield, Tazewell County 

District 44 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Israel O’Quinn, Washington County

District 45 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Terry Kilgore, Scott County 

District 46 winner: Republican Mitchell D. Cornett

District 47 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Wren Williams, Patrick County

District 48 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Eric Phillips, Henry County 

District 49 winner: Republican Madison Whittle

District 50 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Tommy Wright, Lunenburg County

District 51 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Eric Zehr, Campbell County

District 52 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Wendell Walker, Lynchburg 

District 53 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Tim Griffin, Bedford County

District 56 winner: incumbent Republican Del. Tom Garrett, Louisa County

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