Weekend full of athletic competitions for most sports

The football team isn’t the only group of Panthers competing this weekend. Here’s what else is going on:

Women’s Soccer:

The Pitt women’s soccer team takes to the field today against Georgetown at 3 p.m. for the first of four road games to end the season.

The Panthers are coming off a 1-0 win against Syracuse in their last home game of the year. The team set a school record for shutouts (eight) with its win over the Orange and needs one more win to tie the school record of eight wins in a season.

Pitt head coach Sue-Moy Chin said the Panthers concentrated on working on their attack this week during practice. She also praised the midfield for performing well all season, particularly Liz Carroll over the weekend of Oct. 4.

“Our midfield has been really strong,” Chin said. “They just connect everything. Katie Ruhe has been a good player for us all year. Laura Berbert is starting to really come back from her knee injury.”

Injured goalkeeper Morie Kephart is day-to-day, Chin said. Kephart suffered a strain against DePaul on Oct. 4. Chin said the staff would continue to evaluate the injury, but her condition is improving.

The Panthers are currently in sixth placein the American division of the Big East with 10 points. Georgetown is in third place in the National division with 13 points.

The top five teams from the American and National divisions will advance to the Big East Championship.

Men’s Soccer:

The men’s soccer team will try to grab its first Big East win on Saturday against No. 17 Connecticut at 7 p.m.

The Panthers broke their nine-game losing streak by tying West Virginia on Oct. 6. The Panthers followed that game with a 1-0 overtime loss to Georgetown.

Pitt head coach Joe Luxbacher said the Panthers have played better over the last couple of games, particularly defensively. However, he added that the team is still having trouble capitalizing on opportunities and scoring goals.

“The last couple games we did create good chances. We just aren’t putting it in the goal,” Luxbacher said. “We have to focus on finishing.”

He said the Panthers focused on defense this week during practice because they are having difficulty scoring and need to play solid defense in order to defeat the nationally ranked Huskies.

“We have to make the best of our chances, and that’s what we’ve been working on all week,” Luxbacher said.

Swimming and Diving:

The Panthers will compete in their first event of the season on Saturday against St. Bonaventure at 10 a.m.

Julian Krug, the assistant head coach for diving, said that the team is not in as good shape as it will be later in the season, nor is it supposed to be.

Pitt held its Blue-Gold meet on Oct. 9. Sophomore Jake Lucas set a meet record for the 100 freestyle, while senior Jon Buchanan was the only swimmer who clocked less than a minute in the 100 breast stroke. The Blue team defeated the Gold 152-117.

For the women, junior Laura Barnes, the current school record holder for the 200 breast, set a Blue-Gold meet record for the event. She led the Blue team to a 142.5-132.5 victory.

“I expect to do well in competition with St. Bonaventure,” Krug said. “However, I don’t except to do as well quality-wise as we will the rest of the season.”

Women’s Volleyball:

The women’s volleyball team will face off against Notre Dame in the Fitzgerald Fieldhouse Saturday at 2 p.m.

Notre Dame is currently in first place in the Big East with an undefeated record. The Panthers and Syracuse, each at 5-1, are tied for second place. Cincinnati is a half-game behind.

In their last game, the Panthers earned a five-set victory over South Florida while racking up a season-high 18 blocks. The team recorded 31 total blocks over the weekend.

Pitt has out-blocked its opponents 206-142 this season.

Senior Melissa Stadelman had nine blocks, 11 kills and three assists in the contest against USF, while Meagan Dooley added 18 kills, five blocks and four digs.

Cross Country:

The men’s and women’s cross country teams will run at the Princeton Invitational on Saturday in New Jersey.

The women’s team placed ninth out of 13 at the Carnegie Mellon Invitational on Oct. 10 in Schenley Park with an average time of 22:25:51. Freshman Megan DeGraaf led the Panthers, crossing the finish line 35th overall.

The men’s team ran in the Paul Short Invitational on Oct. 4 at Lehigh. Junior Josh Christopher crossed the line first for Pitt with a time of 24:55. Four additional Panthers finished in the 28th minute. The team finished 28th overall.

This is the last meet for the Panthers before the Big East Championship on Nov. 14.