Pitt sports prepare for a weekend with opportunities to right recent wrongs

Cross country

This weekend, the Panthers travel to Madison, Wisconsin, to compete in the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals at the Zimmer Championship Course. Pre-nationals are held as a forerunner for the 2024 NCAA Cross Country National Championships.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will compete in the B-race category, where they will face off over 20 other teams. 

The Panthers are coming off success at their previous three meets this season. Pitt swept the Panther Opener and posted a top-10 overall team performance in the Spiked Shoe Invitational. The team also went top 10 on the men’s side and top 20 for the women’s squad in the Lehigh Paul Short Run. 

Senior Winnie Incorvaia is consistently racking up strong results for the women’s team. Junior Luke Simpson and senior Quintin Gatons have been showing strong efforts for the men’s side all season.

Last season at the UVA Pre-Nationals in Charlottesville, the men’s team finished in 19th place while the women finished in 12th. The women competed in a 6k in which Incorvaia finished in 66th place with a time of 21:12.0.

Following their pre-nationals excursion, Pitt will travel to Cary, North Carolina, for the ACC Championships on Nov. 1.

Men’s soccer

The No. 4 ranked men’s soccer team (10-3, 4-1) will travel to Chapel Hill on Saturday to face No. 7 ranked North Carolina (8-1-4, 3-1-1) in a pivotal ACC matchup.

Pitt recently dropped games against Cal (4-5-2, 1-3-2) and High Point (8-2-2, 4-0 Big South) and fell three spots from its original No. 1 rank. The Panthers are looking to bounce back after these back-to-back losses with only a few games left in the regular season.   

Last year’s matchup against the Tar Heels ended in a 0-0 draw, and UNC is coming off a 5-2 win over William and Mary (4-8, 2-3 CAA).

The Panthers look to get back to winning ways with help from senior forward Luis Sahmkow and sophomore forward Albert Thorsen who lead the team with eight and six goals respectively.

The defense has stepped up this year, with the team posting six shutouts while allowing only eight goals in thirteen matches.

Following Saturday’s trip, the Panthers will host Virginia on Oct. 25 and then cap off the season with a trip to Syracuse on November 1st.  

The Panthers will have to come away with wins for a chance to clinch the ACC regular season title in this last three game stretch.

Women’s soccer

Pitt women’s soccer (9-3-2, 3-2-1) travels to Tallahassee on Sunday for a conference game against Florida State (8-2-2, 3-2-1).

Pitt is coming off a big 3-0 win against rivals Syracuse (6-8-1, 0-7), and Florida State comes into this match following a 1-0 win against Boston College (10-4-1, 2-2-1).

The Panthers last matchup with the Seminoles ended in a narrow 3-2 defeat in the 2023 NCAA Quarterfinals. This year, the team will look to senior forward duo Sarah Schupansky and Samiah Phiri to put points on the board, with the two tallying 27 and 19 points each on the season.  

The women’s team also has a chance at the regular season conference title and will end the season hosting Wake Forest (9-2-2, 4-1-1) on Oct. 24, then traveling to South Bend to play Notre Dame (8-1-3, 2-0-3) on Oct. 31. Winning these games could potentially place the Panthers atop the ACC. 

Lacrosse

On Saturday, Pitt Women’s lacrosse travels to University Park for Penn State’s Fall Play Day. Other attending teams include hosts Penn State, Drexel and Cornell.

The Panthers will play Drexel to start the day at 11 a.m. and end with back-to-back games against Penn State at 2 p.m. and Cornell at 3 p.m.

Pitt returns four of its top five point leaders heading into the main spring season in senior Jenna Hendrickson, senior Sydney Naylor, sophomore Avery Moon and senior Emily Coughlin.

The Panthers previously hosted a play day on Oct. 6 featuring exhibitions against Cincinnati, St. Bonaventure and Robert Morris. They also traveled on Oct. 12 to Virginia for James Madison’s Fall Play Day with a pair of exhibitions against James Madison and Virginia Tech.

Pitt will end the season on Oct. 27 with a trip to Georgetown’s Fall Play Day