No matter what happened on Saturday, the SMU volleyball team had done enough to prove it belongs amongst the top teams in the ACC and the country. Then the Mustangs made another statement.

SMU handed No. 1 Pittsburgh its first loss of the season in five sets. It was only the second time the Panthers had to play a fourth set and the first time playing a fifth set, dropping just one set the entire season coming into the match.

That included a sweep of these same Mustangs on Wednesday.

"They whooped us. I mean, really whooped us," SMU head coach Sam Erger said of Wednesday's match. "I don't care how good the team is, that's hard, right? Like, if you're a true competitor, that still sucks. And we're talking about, 'Hey, what would it be like to beat them tonight?' And at times when I'm saying that, I felt like I believed it, maybe, more than our team, they can speak to that or not. But I'm just so proud because at a point in that match, it did flip where I could tell that they believed it and were going for it."

The 25-19 first-set loss was already closer than any of the three sets in Pittsburgh. And with the 25-22 win in the second set made the Mustangs only the second team to take a set from the Panthers. 

After SMU had built a 16-12 lead in the second set, the Panthers went on a run. They won six of the next eight points, including three in a row, to tie the set at 18-all. The Mustangs won the next three points to regain control and pick up the set win.

That's when some things started to click.

"I would say almost in the second set, whenever we stopped their run because that was kind of what got away from us on Wednesday, and that's why we ended up losing that match," graduate middle blocker Nnedi Okammor said. "So I think stopping the runs really did help. And we saw that in the second set and then we're able to replicate it again in the fourth and the fifth, and that's where we got the win for sure."

But Pitt responded with a big 25-13 win in the third set. SMU could have been satisfied with taking a set off the No. 1 team in the country and folded.

Instead, the Mustangs responded — with a little help from the coaching staff — by winning the fourth set 25-23 and then the fifth and deciding set 15-9.

"I think the third set, that was crazy. Ridiculous, actually," graduate outside hitter Natalie Perdue said. "But I think, yeah, it kind of clicked that fourth set where it was like, 'Look, we've already lost once. We're going to have to go out here and we're just going to have to do (it), you know. You've got to figure it out. I think, honestly, it took us getting cussed out a little bit to figure it out. And sometimes you need that."

Even though sometimes it takes the coaching staff making sure the players believe in themselves in the moment, SMU attracts players with plenty of confidence. Erger wants players who want to play in big matches to come and be Mustangs.

"Human nature attracts people who are like minded. I personally am very competitive," Erger said. "I just want to ball. I just want to compete. I love that. And I think because human nature, you attract people who are like minded. The kids that when they have a conversation with me, if they're about that, then we probably click. And so we have a team full of kids that I think are about that. I don't think they freaking care who we're playing, but you'll see, when we're playing these teams, because they're just a bunch of dogs and a bunch of competitors, but that's the kind of kids that click with me. That's who shows up and says yes to us."

What moving to the ACC did is got the attention of those players. It also meant there were more games like this throughout the conference schedule and not just early in the season.

"I think we prepare the same for every opponent, regardless of who it is, with the intention of going in to win at the end of the day," Perdue said. "Power Five, this is where you want to be. This is where you come, you play every day. We're not trying to play roody-poody games."

SMU now has wins against No. 1 Pitt, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 13 Georgia Tech and No. 18 Baylor.

Even with the earlier wins, coming off such a tough loss made Saturday's victory that much more special.

"I wish you guys could have been in our game at Pitt. You would understand why I was crying, because they killed us," Erger said. "They destroyed us. They mopped the floor with us. ... I know we can compete with this team, but we're just not doing it. So then when you go do it, it's rare for a group of people to band together and go achieve a high goal and so when you do that, it makes you emotional."

There are still games to be played against No. 5 Stanford, on Wednesday, No. 4 Louisville (Nov. 27), two against No. 21 Florida State (Nov. 17 and 27) and against Virginia (Nov. 3) and Miami (Nov. 15) teams that are currently receiving votes.

"We're trying to play competition every game. We're trying to win," Perdue said. "These are the games that we want to play. And we have a team full of winners. We have vets who are coming in and they're expecting to win. We're not just expecting to come in and say, 'OK, let's have fun and be friends.' That's great, but we're trying to win and I think Power Five is a great place to do that."

It's been a three-year process for Erger at SMU. In the first season, the Mustangs didn't make the postseason. In Year 2, they won a conference title and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. 

This year, SMU has entered the rankings for the first time in program history with wins against the two best teams in the country.

"It's really a special year because this is my third year," Erger said. "We have some newbies, which is really special, and each team is their own team, but it's also really cool because we've kind of grown with a few of them too.

"... This is a three-year build now with a few of them that have been with us the whole time, and then we plugged in some amazing additions that were bought into what we're trying to do in our team culture and things like that. And so it's just really special."