Cat Flood entered the transfer portal.

Valeria Vazquez Gomez could have hung up her Pitt volleyball gear after last season.

Instead, both decided to spend their final year of eligibility in blue-and-gold because they wanted one more shot at a national championship, and, on paper at least, the Panthers appear to be on the cusp of that goal. Pitt received the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament and will host matches at The Pete through the Elite Eight (as long as it keeps winning).

The Panthers (29-1), who have spent 13 weeks atop the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, will face Morehead State at 7 p.m. Friday at Petersen Events Center. Oklahoma and UTEP will play the opening match at 4 p.m.

“It’s do or die at this point, but I also think not making it something way more than it is,” said senior libero/defensive specialist Emmy Klika. “Just kind of knowing that if we play our game … if we give it our all, it will end up in a win.”

Pitt coach Dan Fisher sounded a familiar refrain in his pre-NCAA comments: He is more interested in being No. 1 at the end. Still, he couldn’t overlook the significance of being the top seed.

“I like being No. 1 because I like how it has affected our program and the attendance and the buzz,” he said.

There has been plenty of buzz around the Panthers for several seasons now. They are in the NCAA Tournament for the ninth straight year and seeking their fourth consecutive trip to the Final Four.

So this is nothing new for the vast majority of the Panthers. With such a well-seasoned group, Fisher said he and his staff have to worry less about the nuts and bolts of volleyball and more about the peripheral items that come with the tournament.

“It’s more about honest conversations and keeping them locked in,” said the 2024 ACC Coach of the Year. “There’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of media. There’s finals coming up. There’s family pressure. So just making sure we’re doing everything we can as a coaching staff to make sure that we’re helping them stay focused and lightening their load.”

Added Klika: “I think we do a good job of addressing where the outside noise might be coming from before it even happens so that we have a plan on our end.”

The Panthers’ first focus will be Morehead State, which took an unusual route to the tournament.

The Eagles lost to Lindenwood in the Ohio Valley Conference final, but because Lindenwood is still in the probationary period after making the jump from NCAA Division II, it is ineligible for the postseason. So Morehead, which defeated top seed Southeast Missouri State in the OVC semifinals, earned the conference’s tournament bid.

“Until you’re in that situation, it’s hard to understand,” said Morehead coach Kyrsten Becker-McBride, who has been with the program 14 seasons, the past two as head coach. “We knew the winner of the (Southeast Missouri State) match got the (automatic qualifier) and went to the NCAA Tournament, so we celebrated afterward. There was a dogpile.

“… They’ve been a thorn in our side for a while. We beat (Southeast Missouri State) when it mattered. Some people can look and say we got in by default, but we’re in.”

Morehead State is led by 6-foot-1 junior outside hitter M.E. Hargan, a first-team All-OVC selection who is averaging 3.21 kills per set, and 6-1 grad middle hitter Irene Wogenstahl (2.44 kills per set, 95 total blocks). Wogenstahl was a freshman when Morehead State was swept by the Panthers in the 2020-21 regular season, registering seven kills.

“I think we’ve grown a lot since the beginning of the season,” Hargan said. “We played Kentucky, Western (Kentucky), Cincinnati and some bigger schools like that. If we were to play them now, I think we’d have an even better shot at them, so it’s good to know that our trajectory is still going up.

“Something we’ve always been good and consistent at is serving tough. We do tend to miss quite a lot, but I’d say it evens out with how we get the other team out of system and how many aces we get.”

Despite facing a decided underdog, the Panthers aren’t planning on taking them lightly.

“We prepare for every game and treat each opponent with the same worth,” Klika said. “We’ll do the same amount of scouting for them as any team. We have to keep our standard on our side of the net, and if we play to our standard, we feel good that it will bring a win.

“We have so much respect for everyone in the tournament. It’s so hard to even make it here. We know everyone is going to bring their best no matter what stage of the tournament it is. Prepare for every match like it’s going to be a five-set nail-biter.”

Pitt will be a tough out for anyone. The Panthers boast one of the nation’s top talents in 6-4 sophomore right-side hitter Olivia Babcock, who was named ACC Player of the Year. She is complemented by sophomore outside Torrey Stafford, senior setter Rachel Fairbanks, sixth-year outside Vazquez Gomez, Klika and middles Bre Kelley (redshirt junior) and Ryla Jones (freshman).

All seven received All-ACC postseason honors, and together they helped Pitt finish in the top five in the nation in hitting percentage (first, .341), opponent hitting percentage (first, .122) and blocks (fourth, 2.98 per set). Additionally, serving specialists Flood and Dillyn Griffin complement the lineup regulars to give Pitt one of the best serving teams in the nation (10th, 1.98 aces per set).

The pieces are all in place. Now, beginning Friday, the Panthers will look to finish the job.

“They talk about the Final Four and the national championship more than I do,” Fisher said. “They know they have the talent to do it. That level of drive has been there from the start and, I guess, confidence, for lack of a better word, that we can do it.”

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