{"id":301182,"date":"2026-10-07T00:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T00:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/301182\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T00:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T00:02:11","slug":"no-6-smu-primed-for-top-10-showdown-at-no-2-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/301182\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 6 SMU Primed For Top-10 Showdown At No. 2 Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

#6 SMU (12-2, 4-0 ACC) at #2 Pittsburgh (14-0, 4-0 ACC)\u00a0 \u00a0

\nWednesday, Oct. 7 \u2022 6 p.m. CT\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0

\nPetersen Events Center \u2022 Pittsburgh, PA.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0

\nACC Network<\/a> \u2022 Match Notes<\/a> \u2022 Live Stats<\/a> \u2022 SMU Mobile App<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

PITT WEEK: TWO TOP-6 SHOWDOWNS \u00a0

\n\u2022 No. 6 SMU Volleyball gears up for the annual home-and-home with ACC travel partner No. 2 Pittsburgh, starting with Wednesday’s matchup on the road. \u00a0

\n\u2022 The Mustangs bring a six-match winning streak into the contest. \u00a0

\n\u2022 A win for SMU would be its sixth win over a top-5 and ninth over a top-10 opponent under Erger. \u00a0

\n\u2022 The Mustangs have won their last 13 ACC matches, the longest active streak in the conference, and look to continue that trend against the Panthers. \u00a0

\n\u2022 Through four matches, SMU, Louisville, Pitt and North Carolina are all unbeaten in ACC and tied at the top of the conference standings. \u00a0

\n\u2022 With the Mustangs’ 13-match ACC road streak and the Panthers’ 58-match home winning streak, a streak will be snapped on Wednesday in Pittsburgh. The Panthers are also one of two unbeaten teams left in the country at 14-0 (Nebraska). \u00a0

\n\u2022 SMU went 8-2 in road ACC matches last season and has started conference play 2-0 this season. The Mustangs are 4-1 in true road matches this season, with their only loss coming in five sets to now No. 8 TCU. \u00a0<\/p>\n

NEWSOME ACC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK \u00a0

\n\u2022 Junior middle blocker Natalia Newsome<\/a> was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Week, the conference announced Monday (Oct. 5). \u00a0

\n\u2022\u00a0The honor is the first weekly recognition of her career. Newsome led the ACC and ranked fifth nationally last week in blocks per set at 2.17 per frame. \u00a0

\n\u2022 She tied a career-high with eight blocks in the Mustangs’ sweep at Syracuse on Friday, including two solo rejections. It marked the second time in her career that Newsome logged 8+ blocks in a match. The junior followed that up with a five-block outing in the Mustangs’ sweep at Boston College. \u00a0

\n\u2022 Newsome led SMU to 4.50 blocks per set as a unit, the most in the nation. The pressure at the net helped the Mustangs hold opponents to a .042 hitting percentage across the two matches, which ranked first in the ACC and fifth in the country last week. \u00a0

\n\u2022 The Mustangs have now earned five ACC weekly honors this season and 23 since joining the league in 2024. \u00a0<\/p>\n

FIRST IN THE NATION \u00a0

\n\u2022 Junior middle blocker Natalia Newsome<\/a> leads the nation in hitting percentage, terminating at a .528 clip for the season.\u00a0

\n\u2022 Natalia Newsome<\/a> is the most efficient middle in SMU Volleyball history and in the country. Over her career, she is hitting at a .476 clip. \u00a0

\n\u2022 On nine swings or more, she has hit .500 or better nine times this season. \u00a0

\n\u2022 Newsome hit .909 against Stanford in SMU’s ACC opener, the second-highest clip on 10 swings in program history and tied for the second-best clip this season across the NCAA. \u00a0<\/p>\n

SHOWTIME SULI LEADING THE MUSTANGS \u00a0

\n\u2022 Suli Davis<\/a> has been one of the top point scorers not only in the ACC but in the country. She enters the week ranked top-15 nationally in five offensive categories: \u00a0<\/p>\n

Attacks Per Set (13th) \u00a0

\nKills Per Set (5th) \u00a0

\nTotal Points (13th) \u00a0

\nPoints Per Set (7th) \u00a0

\nTotal Kills (9th) \u00a0

\nThrough 10\/4\/26 \u00a0<\/p>\n

ACC PLAY DOMINANCE \u00a0

\n\u2022 The Mustangs enter Wednesday’s match on a 13-match ACC winning streak, the longest active streak in the conference. \u00a0

\n\u2022 The 13-match run is the second-longest streak in the Power Four and eighth-longest in the country entering the week. \u00a0

\n\u2022 The last conference loss for the Mustangs was a five-set loss on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025, at No. 21 North Carolina. \u00a0<\/p>\n

ON THE ROAD UNDER ERGER \u00a0

\n\u2022 Under Coach Erger, SMU is 46-13 in true away matches and 19-3 in ACC road contests.

\n\u2022 The Mustangs have road wins versus every ACC opponent except Pitt and North Carolina in just over two seasons of league competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WEEK 5 NOTABLES \u00a0

\n\u2022 SMU earned its fifth and sixth sweeps of the season, with dominant wins at Syracuse and Boston College. \u00a0

\n\u2022 The Mustangs improved to a combined 9-0 against the two foes. \u00a0

\n\u2022\u00a0SMU led the nation in blocks per set last week, averaging 4.50 against the Orange and Eagles. The Mustangs’ starting middles, Natalia Newsome<\/a> (2.17) and Favor Anyanwu<\/a> (2.0), finished one and two in blocks per set in the ACC over the week. \u00a0

\n\u2022 SMU was fourth in the nation in hitting percentage last week, swinging at a.401 clip in the two matches. \u00a0

\n\u2022 The Mustangs also held opponents to a .042 clip, the fifth-lowest hitting percentage allowed last week. \u2022 Suli Davis<\/a> logged her sixth double-double of the season against the Orange with 12 kills and 10 digs on Friday. \u00a0

\n\u2022 Davis had a career day against the Eagles on Sunday, finishing with 16 kills on a career-best .556 efficiency. She also collected a career-high six blocks in the win.\u00a0

\n\u2022 Jadyn Livings<\/a> is slowly getting back to her old All-American self. She started both matches last week for the first time this season and logged 17 total kills on a .438 clip. \u00a0

\n\u2022 SMU improves to 54-0 when hitting .300 or better under Erger, hitting .341 and .486 against Syracuse and Boston College. The Mustangs have hit .300+ in five straight matches. \u00a0

\n\u2022 SMU improved to 37-7 in ACC matches since joining the league in 2024. \u00a0<\/p>\n

SMU VS. PITTSBURGH \u00a0

\n\u2022 Pitt leads the overall series 3-1 and is 2-0 at home against the Mustangs. \u00a0

\n\u2022 SMU’s only win came in five-sets at home on Oct. 12, 2024.\u00a0

\n\u2022\u00a0Wednesday and Sunday’s matchups will be the first two with both programs ranked inside the top10. \u00a0<\/p>\n

SMU IN THE 2026 RPI \u00a0

\nQUAD 1 (1-25): 3-2 | Best win in quadrant: vs. Kentucky (2) | Worst loss in quadrant: vs. Purdue (18) \u00a0

\nQUAD 2 (26-50): 4-0 | Best win: Colorado State (29) | Worst loss: none \u00a0

\nQUAD 3 (51-100): 4-0 | Best win: at San Diego (58) | Worst loss: none \u00a0

\nQUAD 4 (101+): 1-0 | Best win: at Syracuse (175) | Worst loss: none\u00a0

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"#6 SMU (12-2, 4-0 ACC) at #2 Pittsburgh (14-0, 4-0 ACC)\u00a0 \u00a0 Wednesday, Oct. 7 \u2022 6 p.m.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-301182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}