The first time Pitt volleyball sophomore Olivia Babcock brought up playing in the Olympics was when she was a freshman in high school. It wasn’t about volleyball though. She wanted to go and play for the U.S. women’s national team in soccer.
This was before Babcock had officially made the switch to volleyball, but the dream has continued.
She set her sights on playing in the Olympics for volleyball just a few years later. Babcock was playing beach volleyball with her sister, Natalie, and they were coached by Dane Selznick — who coached Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh to two Olympic gold medals.
“He sent a text to one of our friends — he didn't send it to us — but he said, ‘Liv could be better than Kerri Walsh,’ ” said Dave Babcock, Olivia’s father. “It was then and when she started playing club volleyball her sophomore year of high school that we kind of all realized everything everybody's been thinking all these years is probably going to start happening.”
Her career has catapulted since then. She’s played for two different U.S. national teams, including when she won gold with the under-19 squad in the Pan American Cup. Most recently, she played at the NORCECA Women’s Pan American Cup Final Six and represented the senior national team.
Babcock was the only freshman on a star-studded squad of current collegiate players while the Olympic national team prepared for Paris.
“When I found out I was starting, I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s crazy. I'm really young,’ ” Babcock said. “I was kind of nervous. But it was a good experience, and I'm really glad I had it because now, in the following years, I feel like it's no longer gonna be like a new experience.”
The U.S. team went toe to toe in the Final Six medal match against the Olympic-qualified Dominican Republic team, falling in five sets. But they walked away with a silver medal.
Babcock’s biggest takeaway? She really thinks there’s a chance she can make it to Los Angeles in 2028, and a large part of that is due to her time at Pitt.
“After last year, I talked to [coach Dan Fisher] about it, and we think I fully am capable if I keep just putting in the work,” Babcock said. “For the next few seasons, I really don't have any goals going into them. That’s kind of a crazy thing to say, but my end goal is to make it to the Olympics and to win a national championship.”
Babcock is coming off of arguably the best performance from a Pitt freshman in program history. She walked away with a slew of personal accolades, including ACC Freshman of the Year and AVCA Freshman of the Year.
But those awards aren’t really on Babcock’s radar this season. Sure, she’d love to win some, especially after last season, but there’s more important things for the sophomore opposite hitter.
“It's just kind of selfish,” Babcock said. “Why would I be focused on myself and my personal accolades when we all are trying to get to a national championship? It's just selfish. Yes, I want to be a good player. That's great. But I want to know how I can be good for the team and the specific ways in which I can benefit the team. Everyone knows how they can benefit personally, but not everyone knows how they can benefit other people. So that's what I'm focused on.”
Dave Babcock wasn’t surprised to hear about his daughter’s goals for the season. He joked that it’s never been about the awards for her. He recently asked her where her medal was, and she said it was “somewhere in her room.”
But what Dave is impressed by is her commitment to the sport. She’s always been like this, even when she was a three-sport athlete — volleyball, soccer and water polo — but it really showed this past summer.
Babcock really only had two weeks off from volleyball this summer. Only one of those days overlapped with her twin sister.
“That's kind of gut-wrenching for her because she's a human, too,” Dave Babcock said. “It's more important to her to be sure that she achieves those goals. She makes that, that Olympic squad. She prepares with Pitt. The end result, that outweighs the sacrifice that she has made. She's really sad that she didn't get to see her sister more or her friends. But to her, making that team and climbing that mountain, it just outweighs that a little bit.”
Last season, she came in as a bit of an unknown factor for anyone who didn’t know her personally. She wasn’t even the highest-rated player in last season’s freshman class. Torrey Stafford was.
However, by the end of the season — even just a few games in — everyone knew who Babcock was. Not only did she lead Pitt in points per set (4.62), but she was 38th in the nation and the third-highest freshman in those rankings.
She’ll have a huge target on her back coming into this season. However, no one on her team is worried about her handling the pressure that could come with being the reigning freshman of the year.
“She’s elite,” senior setter Rachel Fairbanks said. “She just played and won because she's amazing. She's worked on her mental game so much. She's learned from the coaches, from everyone on this team. Just from one conversation, you can tell how much she's grown. In the beginning of the season last year, not gonna lie, I didn't know if I could trust her. Now, 100%, hands down, I would trust her with anything. She'll 100% be able to handle it. She'll not only be able to handle it but take it and use it and rise up to the challenge.”
Fisher even went out of his way to mention that Babcock stood out as one of the vocal leaders on the team. She was a bit surprised by that because it wasn’t exactly intentional. She was just inspired by some of her other teammates.
She’s trying to bring that energy, especially this year, because she thinks this could be the year that the Panthers walk away as national champions. The biggest thing is just not getting caught up in all the expectations, especially because Pitt will be chasing its fourth consecutive Final Four appearance.
“If you chase the glory of your past success, it's gonna be your fastest route to failure,” Babcock said. “I know why I'm playing, and I'm competing for the people I'm playing with. If I get better naturally, great. If I don't but we go to the tournament, that’s even better. I just want this team to succeed. And however I can contribute, it's really about how I help the team and how the team ends up falling in the tournament.”
Abby Schnable: aschnable@post-gazette.com and @AbbySchnable on X
First Published: August 11, 2024, 9:30 a.m.