Soccer: Panthers go winless in Pitt Soccer classic

Pitt’s women’s soccer team couldn’t find a win in the Pitt Soccer classic, but the… Pitt’s women’s soccer team couldn’t find a win in the Pitt Soccer classic, but the Panthers focused on their improvements rather than their struggles.  The team earned a draw and a loss this weekend in the inaugural Pitt Soccer Classic, where Penn State shut the Panthers(1-3-2) out 3-0 in Sunday’s final match. Pitt came into the tournament after picking up their first win – a 1-0 victory – against Delaware last week.

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On Friday night, the host Panthers played an exciting game against Colorado College that ended in a 2-2 tie. Cuba buried a goal in the lower left corner before the seventh minute to give the team a quick 1-0 lead.

Pitt head coach Sue-Moy Chin said that Cuba played very well Friday, but she also gave a lot of credit to her sophomore forward Dana DelleFemine.

“Dana created space for the whole team,” Chin said. “She made good runs and really helped put Ashley in position to capitalize.”

And capitalize was exactly what Cuba did, as she tallied her second goal of the first half — this one on the right corner.

“She had a good first half Friday night,” Chin said. “Both goals were very good. She used her right and her left foot.”

Cuba’s scoring dominance is nothing new for the Panthers. With her 16^th and 17^th goals, she has already jumped to 3^rd all-time for Pitt in career goals.

“That’s what she does for us,” Chin said. “That’s what we need from her in the future.”

Another record-breaking Panther, Katelyn Ruhe, assisted Cuba on the second goal.

Ruhe, a senior, added onto her all-time leading assist total – which is now 16 – when she set up Cuba on her second goal.

Just 31 seconds later, Colorado College would strike for the first time to cut the deficit in half.

“We were obviously disappointed with the goal right after ours,” Chin said. “I don’t know if the girls lost focus, but it was unfortunate that it came so quickly.”

The Panthers looked to extend the lead but couldn’t net another goal to return to their two-goal advantage.

“We had opportunities to extend the lead,” Chin said. “We let them back in the game when we could’ve been better with possession and extended the lead to put it out of hand.”

The tying goal came on an own goal deflecting off a Pitt defender in the box.

“Both goals were very unlucky for us,” Ruhe said. “We even had an own goal. Just very unlucky.”

The two teams battled a 2-2 draw the whole way through overtime. Pitt would go on to win the exhibition shootout 4-2 to face Penn State.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, Penn State would blow open an otherwise close contest behind the strong play of Maya Hayes.

Hayes – who scored three goals against Pitt and finished the weekend with five- won the tournament MVP while leading Penn State. Hayes scored the first goal for the in-state rivals of the Panthers in the 18^th minute.

Pitt then held off Penn State for another 60 minutes.

First-year starter and senior goalkeeper Kristina Rioux stopped 13 shots from the Nittany Lions on Sunday.

Rioux was named to the all-tournament team. Three other Panthers — Cuba, Ruhe and freshman Alyssa Meier — joined her.

“Kristina did very well,” Chin said. “There were small adjustments she could have made on the first and third goal. She did really well under quite a lot of pressure. She made some good saves at full extension, diving out.”

Rioux had a good performance on Sunday. And despite the score, so did the rest of the team.

With a 1-0 deficit, Chin’s Panthers were seeking the equalizer and began to attack heavily when Penn State’s star Hayes would add another two goals to give her team the tournament victory.

“Penn State is good competition, and we played with them,” Chin said. “Their last two goals came when we were pushing forward to try and hit the equalizer.”

Despite the loss, Ruhe was also pleased with how she and her teammates played on Sunday.

“Even though we lost to Penn State, it was a great step forward for us,” Ruhe said. “We stepped it up all over the field, especially defensively.”

Ruhe wasn’t the only player seeing the positives of the weekend, and the team will continue to push forward.

“We defended really well as a team,” Meier said. “If we continue to put in maximum effort, the results will start to go our way.”