IN POST-PLAYING DAYS, AKEO BRIDGES TWO GENERATIONS OF PITT VOLLEYBALL EXCELLENCE Stephen Thompson Senior Staff Writer
Kamalani Akeo arrived at Pitt in 2015 — as a walk-on — and joined a Panthers volleyball program that, under a second-year head coach, had struggled to find its footing in a new conference and hadn’t made a NCAA Tournament in more than a decade. She left the program a two-time conference champion, three wins in the national tournament under her belt and her name etched in stone under the shadow of the Cathedral of Learning on Pitt’s Varsity Walk. “To be perfectly honest, when I was signing my letter of intent, I didn’t think that we were going to be as successful as we were,” Akeo said. “And I don’t think anyone would have thought the same thing … I don’t think even [head] coach [Dan] Fisher thought this program was going to see so much success in such a short amount of time.”
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But Akeo’s tenure at Pitt didn’t end with her playing days. After she finished kickstarting the most successful era in Panthers volleyball, she returned to Oakland this January as a volunteer assistant coach. Alongside head coach Dan Fisher, Akeo pushed program limits even further — helping the Panthers reach the Elite Eight this spring. Now one of the most decorated players in school history is making her homecoming permanent. Fisher announced on May 24 that he was promoting Akeo to director of operations for Pitt volleyball, following the departure of Peter Manguiat, who previously held the role for slightly more than a year. She is one of the lasting pieces of the teams that built Pitt volleyball into what it is today, bridging two halves of an era of excellence. Akeo was in the middle of her second pro- Kamalani Akeo joined middling Pitt volleyball as a walk-on and left it as a fessional season in Slovenia when the COV- two-time conference champion with three wins in the NCAA Tournament. In her post-playing days, she looks to push program limits even further. See Akeo on page 60 TPN File Photo
June 25, 2021
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