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Pitt volleyball coach Dan Fisher finds right mix, crafts big-time winner

Chuck Curti
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Pitt volleyball coach Dan Fisher has guided the team to a 20-0 record and No. 6 national ranking.
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Pitt junior middle hitter Layne Van Buskirk is a member of Canada’s junior national team.
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Pitt junior outside hitter Stephanie Williams is a two-time AVCA honorable mention All-American.

Dan Fisher calls himself a curious person. At Pacific, he majored in sociology with a minor in religious studies. He is an avid reader, always eager to absorb new ideas.

His travels as a volleyball player and coach also have afforded him opportunities to learn. He has been to Hawaii, Belguim – he played professionally and lived in Europe for five years – and various points in between.

Along the way, he made an important observation about his sport: The teams with the best chemistry tend to be the most successful.

That is the foundation on which he has built Pitt volleyball. Fisher, in his sixth season, quickly transformed a middling program into a top-10 team – the Panthers are 20-0 (8-0 ACC) and ranked No. 6 — and an ACC champion.

“He’s just a big name in volleyball, and his goal was to make the program what it is now,” junior middle hitter Layne Van Buskirk said about Fisher, whose resume includes coaching the U.S. women to Pan Am gold in 2015. “He recruits players he knows will be good for the character of the group. We have a great team culture, and that’s what we thrive on.”

Talent helps, too.

When Fisher came to Pitt after leading Concordia to the 2012 NAIA national title, he didn’t inherit a bare cupboard. The pre-Fisher Panthers, if nothing else, were competitive, hanging around .500 most years.

The team, he said, had some size and a few good arms. What it lacked was “an idea of how to play the whole game of volleyball,” so he went to work teaching X’s and O’s while instilling a new mentality.

“I think to be a head coach, you have to be pretty clear about what you stand for and what you want your team culture to stand for,” he said.

In his first season, the Panthers took then-No. 22 Purdue to five sets. The following season, Pitt won at No. 25 Duke with then-freshman Mariah Bell making her first collegiate start in place of injured senior Jessica Wynn, the team’s top outside hitter.

Those, Fisher said, were watershed moments.

“These were girls who never thought they could make the Tournament,” he said. “Those are the two (matches) that changed the thought process of the team at the time. (Making the Tournament) wasn’t just a hypothetical.”

The Panthers chipped away for the next couple of seasons and reached the NCAA Tournament in 2016, their first trip since ’04. The following season brought an ACC title and a second NCAA berth.

Higher-profile recruits took notice. Van Buskirk, who played on Canada’s junior national team, and Slovenia native Nika Markovic headlined Fisher’s 2016 class. Both were on the ACC All-Freshman team, and Markovic was an American Volleyball Coaches Association honorable mention All-American last season.

In 2017, Pitt landed Kayla Lund and Chi Ndee, both ranked among the nation’s top 100 recruits in their graduating class by various publications.

“I really didn’t have a connection on any other visits like the one I had here,” said Lund, a California native who chose Pitt over San Diego, among others. “It was what (Fisher) was preaching and the way he was preaching it. But it was also the way the girls responded to it. You could see how it was bettering them.”

The Panthers have a verbal commitment for next season from another top-100 recruit, 6-foot-5 Hampton senior Anastasia Russ. But prime time for 2019 commitments isn’t until winter, so another ACC title and Tournament appearance could sway more top recruits to consider Pitt.

The success entices, and, the players said, the team culture closes the deal.

“Fisher keeps us in check and lets us be a player-driven team,” said junior outside hitter Stephanie Williams, a two-time AVCA honorable mention All-American. “Especially now that most of the starting lineup is returners, we know what vibe we want to have on and off the court.

“He’s always there in the background, but … we are pretty good at self-regulating.”

Added Lund: “When you put 17 girls together, there’s bound to be issues that aren’t rainbows and butterflies all the time. So if we have a problem with anyone, we’re going to go directly to that person, whether it’s coaches or players … so it doesn’t grow into something bigger.”

With greater success has come greater attention: bigger crowds at the Field House, more media coverage and the proverbial bull’s-eye. Fisher, who, in August signed a contract extension through 2022, said he believes the players have handled it well. But if they need to be brought back to Earth, he said, he works them a little harder in practice.

It’s a reminder of what is important, a reminder of what fueled the program’s rapid transformation.

“The key is whether we are putting the work in, and that’s something I can control as a coach,” he said. “In terms of all the outside stuff, I just remind them that it’s good if it helps our fan base, but, really, it’s just noise. What we really need to focus on is getting better and being good teammates.”

Said Williams: “Day-in and day-out, we go really hard, and we especially focus on keeping each other accountable. We still haven’t reached our peak as a program, and we want to see how far we can take this.”

Chuck Curti is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact at Chuck at ccurti@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CCurti_Trib.