Pitt volleyball's Ndee pursues medical degree amidst breakout season

Volleyball wasn’t Chinaza Ndee’s first sport. After her father’s job in the oil industry brought her family from Nigeria to Texas when she was 5, Ndee took up basketball.

After a while, a basketball teammate recommended she try volleyball, where her athleticism would be a natural fit. Ndee took the advice and, eventually, started to get scholarship offers for volleyball.

“I think when I started playing club, I didn’t realize how big volleyball was,” said the Pitt junior right-side hitter, whose full first name is Chinazaekpere. “I started getting interest from colleges and found out, ‘Oh, this is a thing.’ ”

Ndee (5-foot-11) has been a regular contributor to the Panthers since arriving on campus. But 2019 was her breakout, and her performance was a big reason Pitt went undefeated (18-0) in the ACC for the first time and earned the No. 6 overall seed — its highest ever — in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

She finished second on the team in total kills (289), kills per set (2.86), points per set (3.38) and total blocks (103). Monday, she was named first-team All-ACC for the first time.

Remarkably, Ndee maintains her high level on the court while pursuing a pre-med degree.

Though she had no shortage of suitors for volleyball, Pitt, she said, was “one of the few” that didn’t try to dissuade her from trying to play a Division I sport while studying medicine.

“Being a doctor is something I always have kind of dreamed of,” said Ndee, adding she has yet to choose a specific field. “(Pitt) never showed any hesitation. They said if I wanted to do that, they would support me. It’s a time crunch, but that’s a choice I have made.”

Tuesday represented a typical day: classes from 9:30 a.m. until approximately 1 p.m., team activities — practice, lifting, etc. — from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., followed by an evening of studying. In her sparse free time, she listens to music, watches documentaries — her preference is true crime — or goes to a movie with teammates.

Her rise in the Panthers’ lineup is the stuff of highlight reels.

During her freshman and sophomore seasons, Ndee played mostly middle hitter, spelling Layne Van Buskirk in the rotation and earning her stripes primarily with defense. Behind the scenes, however, she was working on transitioning to right-side hitter.

“We’ve been training her on right side, essentially, since her freshman year,” Pitt coach Dan Fisher said. “She’s such a powerful attacker on the pin and (in) blocking.”

On Sept. 14, with Panthers’ match against then-No. 16 Utah tied 1-1, Fisher put Ndee at right-side hitter for Nika Markovic, a first-team All-ACC performer in 2018. Ndee had four kills in the pivotal third set as Pitt broke the tie and went on to win the match 3-1.

The next match, against Pepperdine, was Ndee’s coming out party. She had 22 kills, hitting .541, and four blocks as the Panthers edged the Waves, 3-2.

“She hasn’t really blinked since,” Fisher said. “Nika was arguably our best player a year ago. But she has been battling some things physically this year and hasn’t been at full strength.”

Markovic remained a regular in Pitt’s rotation, adding depth to the back row. Ndee joined 2019 ACC Player of the Year Kayla Lund, fellow first-teamer Van Buskirk and four-time all-conference honoree Stephanie Williams to form a formidable attack. With freshman setter Lexis Akeo running the offense and libero Hali Hillegas, blocking specialist Sabrina Starks and utility player Zoi Faki serving complementary roles, the Panthers crafted a historic season.

Pitt (29-1) is a program-best No. 2 in the AVCA poll for the sixth week in a row. It will host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row, facing MEAC champion Howard at 7 p.m. Friday at Petersen Events Center.

Pitt seemed to be in line for a top-four overall seed, given its No. 2 ranking and No. 4 spot in the RPI. Ndee said she and her teammates are taking their No. 6 seeding in stride, focusing instead on trying to earn home-court advantage when the Final Four comes to the Pete on Dec. 19 and 21.

“Yeah, I’m not going to lie. We were a little disappointed,” Ndee said. “But top 10 is amazing, so it’s hard to be really disappointed. We have a chance to prove ourselves in the tournament.”