Jun 23, 2026 By Jerin Steele 4 min read

Ever since she started playing the sport at age 11, Alex Knox has been going to watch the Pitt women’s volleyball team.

“My family and I tried to go to as many games as we could,” Knox said.

So, when Panthers coach Dan Fisher extended an offer it made her college decision pretty easy.

Knox, who led Peters Township to its first WPIAL girls volleyball title this past season, committed to Pitt last Tuesday.

She made the announcement via social media.

Knox, who will be a junior in the fall, has traveled all over the country for volleyball, including to Colorado Springs to train in the U.S. national development program and is in Orlando this week to play in the AAU nationals, but she’ll be staying close to home for college.

“Being close to home was definitely a part of it,” Knox said. “I think it’ll be super cool in the future to have a lot of family and friends come out to watch me play. That’s a special opportunity.”

Pitt being one of the top women’s volleyball programs in the country, didn’t hurt either. The Panthers have been to the Final Four five straight years.

“I’ve been to a lot of camps at Pitt and went to games growing up, so I was always around the environment of the Pitt volleyball team. I really love the energy they bring and their team culture with how players interact with each other and the coaches. That’s something that I wanted to be a part of. It was a pretty easy decision. I knew it was an amazing school with a mentality to win.”

Knox, a setter, is the top-ranked recruit from Pennsylvania in the 2028 class by prepvolleyball.com and in the top 30 in the country.

It’s been a pretty quick rise in the sport. Knox grew up playing soccer, but switched sports when she was 11 and is happy with her decision.

“With soccer, even though you’re playing with a team, it’s a little more independent,” Knox said. “I felt that volleyball was more team-oriented and a little quicker pace. It felt way more competitive to me and honestly, I just had more fun playing volleyball.”

Knox did a little bit of everything, including hitting, for Peters Township in their WPIAL championship run, which ended with a 3-0 sweep of Pine-Richland in the championship game.

For the Indians she sometimes finds herself as an outside hitter in the rotation, but on her club team and the national team she is primarily a setter.

She’s seen the benefits of being able to hit for the Indians translate over to being a setter.

“At the (national) level, the hitters’ talents are way beyond my talent as a hitter, so being a setter is the best place for me,” Knox said. “I do think hitting in high school helps me with setting. It’s good to be an offensive setter. I think a lot of coaches look for that. Hitting helps, because you’re getting used to getting up over the net and playing the ball over on a second contact. It’s helped me increase my vertical, which overall has helped me setting in tight areas.”

Knox has been a member of the U.S. National Team development program since the summer after her eighth-grade year.

She said there’s about 50 other girls from around the country that train in the program.

Knox made the initial roster for the U-19 National Team. She’ll fly to Colorado Springs to train from July 9-16 and try to make the final cut. If she makes the final roster, then she’ll play for the U.S. in the Women’s U19 Continental Championship July 17-19 in Costa Rica.

“There’s 20 of us that have been selected for the initial roster,” Knox said. “We’ll train together for eight days and then you find out if you made the team and then the ones that do will fly to Costa Rica to play.”