On Sunday, the Pirates were edged in a five set loss to Pittsburgh (23-25, 25-18, 25-20, 19-25, 17-19), including the Hall holding off five match points before the Panthers ended the match, dropping the Pirates record to 8-11 overall and 2-2 in the Big East.
Zeiter said. "Every Big East match is tough, and today was no exception."
Senior Sarah Osmun led all players with 21 kills, extending her own Seton Hall career kills record to over 1,400. Sophomore Hannah Hugeback had 18 kills and 18 digs, both career highs, while sophomore Olivia Trudeau broke her own career-high assist mark with 66 in the match. Feshman Alyssa Warren led all players with 29 digs.
Pittsburgh opened the first set on an 8-2 run before the Hall came back with an 8-0 run including five kills from Osmun.
After losing the first set, the Hall took the next two sets, to take a 2-1 set lead. The Pirates were up 12-7 in the fourth set before the Panthers went on an 18-7 run after a timeout to force a final tie-breaking set.
In the fifth set, the Pirates fell behind 8-5. Behind a couple of errors from the Panthers and two kills from Hugeback, the Hall took a 10-8 lead.
A 6-1 Pitt run made it 14-11 and gave the Panthers match point for the first time. The Pirates came back after a Hugeback kill and a block from sophomore Morgan DeVries to tie the score at 14-14.
The Hall went up with a 17-16 lead after a kill from Osmun, but Pittsburgh won the next three points to seal the victory.
After the match, Seton Hall head coach Kris Zeiter praised the resiliency of his team.
"You've got two tough teams coming in with the same exact record," Zeiter said. "Unfortunately, we came up one point short. I told the team that now's not the time to dwell on a loss."
On Saturday, the Pirates defeated West Virginia in four sets (25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 25-16) thanks to career days from junior Meghan Matusiak and Trudeau.
Matusiak set a career-high with 23 kills, while Trudeau had a career-best 57 assist along with tying her career-high of 18 digs in the match.
The Hall also got strong performances from Osmun with 15 kills, 16 digs and a career-high five blocks along with Hugeback's 12 kills and 13 digs.
The Pirates started the first set by taking a 9-4 lead after kills by Matusiak and DeVries.
The Hall took its largest lead of the set when Matusiak made it 16-9, and she later closed the set with a point to give the Pirates a 25-19 win and a 1-0 lead in the match.
West Virginia led 11-9 in set two before the Hall went on a 9-3 run to take the 18-14 lead. Hugeback and Matusiak each registered a pair of kills to give the Pirates a 25-19 win in set two.
After dropping set three, the Hall started the fourth set, taking a 13-2 lead to open the set after an 8-0 run and finished off the Mountaineers 25-16.
Matusiak was named to the Big East Weekly Honor Role for her play in the two weekend matches.
The Pirates next play Oct. 7 against the NJIT Highlanders.
Jason Guerette can be reached at jason.guerette@student.shu.edu
