Women’s Soccer: Pitt hoping to capitalize on chances this weekend

The Pitt women’s soccer team hopes it can learn from its past mistakes and capitalize on… The Pitt women’s soccer team hopes it can learn from its past mistakes and capitalize on scoring chances when it plays Louisville and Cincinnati this weekend.

“We just need to concentrate a little bit more and be a little bit better,” Head coach Sue-Moy Chin said. “We are creating chances, the goals will come. The quality just needs to be a little bit better.”

In their last game, the Panthers fell to West Virginia 3-0. Chin said the Mountaineers’ goalkeeper made several quality saves to keep Pitt from scoring, especially in the second half. Pitt sophomore Ashley Cuba said she was impressed with her team’s effort.

“We played with our hearts and with intensity,” she said. “It just didn’t fall in the back of the net.”

Chin saw both positives and negatives in the loss.

“We did well playing the ball in the midfield and connecting with each other in midfield,” Chin said. “But our service wasn’t very good. Too many balls were kicked out of bounds. The quality of our service needs to be better.”

But Pitt has been hit by injuries recently. Chin said senior Liz Carroll didn’t play because of an injury she sustained on Sunday, and a few other athletes are out as well. Cuba said the Panthers are just trying to play to their strengths.

“We have a lot of injured people out right now,” she said. “We just have to keep playing with our hearts and the strengths we do have.”

The Panthers will try to do that when they take on Louisville and Cincinnati — two teams Chin described as “scrappy on the attacking end.”

“They are both very good teams,” Chin said. “Louisville is having a good year this year and Cincinnati is a tough team. They work hard, and they work together. They battle.”

Louisville is 8-2 on the season and 2-1 in the Big East, while Cincinnati is 6-4-1 and 0-3 in the Big East. Louisville is currently in third place in the Big East National Division with six points. Cincinnati is last with zero points.

Pitt is currently last in the American Division.

“They’re both big challenges,” Chin said. “But I think we match up well.”

Louisville has a few new freshmen, Chin said, and Christine Exeter — a first-year player from Canada — is particularly dangerous. Exeter leads the Cardinals with six goals this season.

The Cardinals are coming off a 5-0 loss to Notre Dame, during which they managed only four shots.

Redshirt junior Emily Hebbeler — who has four goals and one assist on the season — leads Cincinnati. The Bearcats fell to DePaul 2-1 in their last game.

Cuba said the Panthers know what to expect from conference opponents.

“It’s a Big East game, and it’s going to be a strong game,” Cuba said. “We have to win to get points and to get somewhere in the Big East.”

In order to pick up their first conference win, Chin said the Panthers simply have to play better.

“We just have to be better, the quality has to be better,” she said. “We had too many unforced errors — like the ball going out of bounds and turning the ball over. We need to regroup and head to Louisville and Cincinnati.”