Pitt women’s lacrosse made history on Saturday at home as the Panthers achieved its first ranked win in program history and its third ACC win since their inaugural 2022 season. The Panthers took down ACC opponent No. 30 Notre Dame in a 13-12 win at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh.
The Panthers took time before the game to honor the 10 seniors on the roster who helped build the program into what it is today.
“Starting a program from the ground up is really hard work,” senior defender Natalie Voorhees said. “But that also means you get to set the standard, and being able to play all of our personalities together is really special.”
The Panthers set the tone early, taking a two-goal lead as both sophomore midfielder Paige Telatovich and senior attacker Sydney Naylor scored. This momentum would carry through the first quarter of play as Pitt took a 4-2 advantage.
The Panthers continued their scoring, but were down 8-6 at halftime as Notre Dame would go on a six-goal scoring run. Coming out of the half, Pitt responded with a four-goal scoring run of their own to give the Panthers a 10-8 lead.
“Every halftime, every quarter, every meeting we have, we always say it’s zero-zero. Don’t look at the score, just play your hearts out,” senior midfielder Jill Fenech said.
The final quarter of play saw the game tied at 11-11. The Panthers would go on to score two more times, with goals from Telatovich and senior Jenna Hendrickson, who set a new Pitt record for goals in a season with her 44th.
Despite a late goal from the Irish, Pitt would hold on to win the game 13-12 against its ACC rivals, in part from the team’s use of a zone defense.
“Our motto is that we have the best zone in the ACC,” Fenech said. “We just have to believe that. We have to trust each other. Starting last year, we changed it up a little bit to be more aggressive, and we have flipped who we are as a defense — we’re causing so many great turnovers against great ACC teams like this.”
Throughout this season and the four years of play, many of the seniors took time to reflect on the impact that Pitt lacrosse has had on them as well as what kind of impact they hope to pass on to the younger players on the team.
“Take everything in, every moment is special, celebrate every little thing and always be yourself,” Voorhees said. “Today, the coach’s main goal was just to play your personalities, and I think it showed on the field.
Capping off the season, the Panthers look to build on this success both in the postseason and years to come.
“If we trust the process and we’re just ourselves, and we give the best version of ourselves every day, then we’re going to get what we need, and that’s what we’re telling our team. There’s no moment too big, no moment too small. We have exactly what we need in the locker room, and we just have to believe in it,” head coach Emily Boissonneault said.
Catch the Panthers next in their final game at Clemson before preparing for the ACC tournament.