It was a familiar scene for the players, coaches, media and fans in attendance for the Elite Eight matchup in the 2024 women’s college volleyball national championship at Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh on Saturday evening:

The Panthers advanced to the Final Four for a fourth straight year.

This time, Pitt, the number-one overall seed in the tournament, swept third-seeded Kentucky in three sets.

The Panthers spent most of the regular season as the number-one ranked team in the country and only lost one match—in five sets to No. 15 SMU in Dallas, Texas, on October 12.

Pitt finished the regular season with a 29-1 record–including 19-1 in the ACC.

Forget matches, the Panthers barely lost any sets during the regular season (10 in 30 games).

Pitt obviously didn’t lose at home during the regular season and went 4-0 at the Pete in the tournament to advance to the Final Four. However, the Panthers did suffer a real scare in a Sweet 16 matchup vs. Oregon on Thursday evening. The fourth-seeded Ducks won the second set, 26-24, and the fourth set by a score of 25-21. The fifth and final set to 15 was also an intense, back-and-forth affair until Pitt pulled away at the end and won, 15-12, to advance to the Elite Eight.

The Panthers won’t have the homecourt advantage when they travel to the KFC Yum! Center in Downtown Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday evening to take on their ACC rivals, the Cardinals, in the national semifinals. Louisville, which will play close to its home arena, will have the advantage this time. Maybe it will need it, too, since the Panthers defeated Louisville twice during the regular season.

Of course, it was just a coincidence that the site of this year’s Women’s Final Four happened to be in Louisville, but to their credit, the Cardinals, who were the number one seed in their bracket, don’t need much help.

It will be the third straight year these two volleyball juggernauts meet in the tournament. The Cardinals defeated Pitt in the national semi-finals in 2022, and the Panthers returned the favor by eliminating Louisville in the Elite Eight a season ago.

The Panthers have really built something great over the past five years and are looking to finally get over the hump and win the first national championship in program history. Of course, Pitt has to get past the Cardinals first, and that will be an epic matchup with the first serve set for 6:30 p.m. EST.