While the football team has a bye, the weekend is still packed with Pitt athletic… While the football team has a bye, the weekend is still packed with Pitt athletic competition.

Volleyball

Pitt’s volleyball team travels east this weekend to face St. John’s (8-16, 1-7 Big East) Friday night and Connecticut (12-12, 5-3) Sunday afternoon.

The Panthers (15-8, 7-2) remain on the hunt for the Big East title. Undefeated Notre Dame rests stop the conference at 8-0. Cincinnati is in second at 7-1, and the Panthers have the same conference record as Syracuse.

St. John’s, meanwhile, sits mired in a seven-match losing streak. The Red Storm hasn’t won in more than a month; their last victory came against DePaul on Sept. 25.

On Sunday, Pitt looks to avenge last season’s 3-1 loss to Connecticut. The Huskies defeated St. John’s last Saturday. Before squaring up against the Panthers, they play West Virginia (13-11, 3-6) Friday night.

Cross Country

The Panthers’ cross country team runs this Saturday in the Big East championships in Milwaukee, Wis.

Pitt is well-rested, last racing two weeks ago in the Princeton Invitational. Junior Teddy Miller paced all Panthers, finishing 29th in the competition. Miya Johnson led all Pitt women with a time of 24:39.40.

The championships consist of an eight-kilometer run for the men and a six-kilometer run for the women.

Men’s Soccer

Another Panthers squad travels to Wisconsin this weekend, as the Pitt men’s soccer team closes out a disappointing season Saturday night at Marquette.

“[The Golden Eagles] are a very good defensive team,” Pitt coach Joe Luxbacher said. “We’ve always had a good game with them … we expect a very tight defensive battle.”

The Golden Eagles (3-9-3, 2-4-3) have hit a patch of bad luck over the past week. They have been shut out of their last two matches, and they also had their Wednesday match against Connecticut postponed due to heavy rain.

Despite a poor record this season, Pitt (2-12-2, 1-8-1) has played well recently, going 1-1-1 in its last three games and

earning its first Big East victory Wednesday night against Seton Hall.

Sophomore Ryan Brode has had two goals throughout the last three games. Pitt as a team scored once in the prior ten matches.

A win against Marquette could pull Pitt out of the Big East basement as the season closes. Seton Hall, 1-6-3 in conference play, faces West Virginia Saturday.

“We’re going out there to win the game,” Luxbacher said. “If we win the game, we jump ahead of Seton Hall, and that is our goal right now.”

Marquette’s student radio station WMUR will stream an audio broadcast online starting at 8 p.m.

Wrestling

As one season closes, another opens. Pitt wrestling starts its season this Sunday at the Buffalo Open.

Head coach Rande Stottlemyer begins his 31st season leading the Panthers, who boast three players ranked in the top 20 of their respective weight classes.

Intermat ranks senior Jimmy Conroy 14th in the 133-pound weight class. Junior Ethan Headlee and sophomore Tyler Nauman each rank 13th in the 165-pound and 141-pound weight classes, respectively.

The Panthers hope to repeat the success of last season, which saw four members participate in the NCAA Championships.