Women’s Soccer: Panthers miss opportunity to set non-conference wins mark, split pair of games

The Pitt women’s soccer team didn’t finish its non-conference schedule the way it…

Senior Ashley Cuba (4) and her teammates hope to put Sunday’s loss behind them.

Bobby Mizia, Senior Staff Photographer

The Pitt women’s soccer team didn’t finish its non-conference schedule the way it wanted.

Following Friday’s 1-0 shutout victory over Liberty, the Panthers had an opportunity to set a program record for non-conference wins. Instead, they were shut out by Virginia Commonwealth in a 1-0 overtime defeat, drawing the ire of head coach Greg Miller.

“As the game went on, we stopped competing and stopped trying to follow our game plan,” Miller said in a press release. “Give credit to VCU, we never had control of the game. They found momentum and never let up. We didn’t have any type of response. It was disappointing that we had that type of effort.”

The team’s lack of energy manifested itself in the shot differential. VCU had 15 shots in the last 51 minutes of play and 21 overall.  Pitt had a mere three during that time. Only two of which were on target. The Panthers managed just seven shots all game.

Pitt’s five non-conference wins once again tie the school record, which was set in 2000, but reached again in 2001, 2006, 2007 and 2009. While Pitt was not happy with its weekend performance, it has set about getting things turned around for Thursday’s Big East opener at home against Marquette.

According to junior forward Dana DelleFemine, the team reverted to a more intense training schedule to prepare fully for No. 12 Marquette.

“We went back to two-a-days this week, practicing at 6:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. because we really didn’t play that well this weekend,” DelleFemine said. “We’re spending time focusing on stuff we did wrong so that we will be ready for conference play. Marquette is a good team. They are going to come out hard, and we need to be prepared.”

Pitt 1, Liberty 0

Pitt sophomore goalkeeper Nicole D’Agostino turned away the only two shots Liberty put on frame to record the first shutout of her collegiate career in the Panthers’ 1-0 win. It was Pitt’s first shutout victory in over a year, dating back to Aug. 28, 2011, when they defeated the Delaware Blue Hens 1-0.

“(The shutout) felt great. It was really good to get that first one of the year,” D’Agostino said. “Obviously, it had been a long time since we were able to shut someone out. It felt better that it was 1-0, too, because they put a lot of pressure on us in the second half, and we were able to come through.”

Sophomore Riliegh McHugh scored what proved to be the game-winning goal from 18 yards out off a cross from Alex Charlebois just 14 minutes into the game.

Despite getting the win, senior Ashley Cuba and her teammates felt that their play didn’t measure up to expectations.

“We didn’t execute well,” Cuba said. “We simply didn’t finish our opportunities. We had several breakaways that we should have scored on and didn’t that could have broken the game wide open.”

Pitt outshot the Flames 11-9, putting four on goal to the Flames’ two. McHugh and DelleFemine each finished with three shots, and Charlebois and Cuba each registered two.

VCU 1, Pitt 0

While the Panthers’ struggles didn’t affect the outcome of their win over Liberty, they did come back to haunt them against Virginia Commonwealth. The Rams outshot Pitt 21-9 — including 5-0 in the overtime period — to pull out a 1-0 victory.

VCU’s single goal, scored in the 96th minute, came when the Ram’s Courtney Conrad collected a teammate’s blocked shot and put the ball inside the left post.

“The shot actually deflected off of Morgan [Sharick] and into the goal,” D’Agostino said. “It was about as unlucky as you could get.”

D’Agostino made four saves, and Charlebois, DelleFemine, Roosa Arvas and Lauren Yobbi each registered a shot on goal.

Despite the loss, the Panthers insist they will be ready for Thursday.

“We have a willingness to compete that wasn’t there [last season]. We would get down on ourselves, and the games would spiral out of control,” Cuba said. “We don’t have that this year. Each game, a different aspect is strongest. Players pick each other up, and we have had success, and we seem to step up in the bigger games.”

D’Agostino agreed.

“We need to keep the mentality that we’ve had all year. It has brought us this far,” she said. “We need to respect our Big East opponents, but we can’t be scared by them. Marquette has made a couple Big East finals appearances, but we can’t think about that. We just need to play our game.”