Women’s Soccer: Cuba not starting, but leading Panthers in first year

Ashley Cuba has a knack for it.

When she gets into the attacking third of the soccer field, she is a natural. She has a nose for threading the ball into the net.

“She’s dangerous,” Pitt women’s soccer coach Sue-Moy Chin said. “You can’t teach that kind of finishing mentality, those natural instincts that she has. That stuff was innate with her. She’s coming in, providing a spark for us.”

Cuba, a freshman midfielder, is only four games into her collegiate soccer career, but she’s already backing up Chin’s words. Cuba’s line through her first four contests: four goals and an assist. Her nine points lead Pitt and put her in a tie for second in the Big East. She trails only Villanova’s Katie Ryan, who has 10 points but has played one more game. She’s also tied for first in the conference in goals, goals per game (one), points per game (2.25) and game-winning goals (three).

But perhaps the most important stat is that she and the Panthers have tallied four wins, leading to their first national ranking in school history this week, with a No. 25 ranking by Soccer America.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence. In Cuba, the Panthers have a 2009 high school all-American as named by ESPN. They also have a scoring punch off the bench – Cuba is leading the team in points without starting a game.

Cuba, who is from Poland, Ohio, knows her performance early in the year has been impressive and carries herself with a certain confidence.

“I want to be on some sort of Big East team,” Cuba said. “I don’t care if it’s second, third. I want to get my name out there, and I want to be breaking records.”

That confidence, though, couples with a modesty that is quick to laud her teammates.

“It wasn’t just me on those goals,” Cuba said. “I have to give credit to Laura Berbert and Liz Carroll for that second goal in the Ohio State game because without them it would have never happened, because it was just a deflection.”

It was last January that Cuba first came to Pitt. She graduated early from high school and enrolled to get a head start with the team. Both Chin and Cuba believe that was an essential period in adjusting to a higher level of competition and learning the things expected of a Division I player.

And Cuba still has much to learn. According to Chin, Cuba needs to improve on holding possession, passing and contributing on defense.

“She’s not the most talented player on the field, [but] she’s a fairly quick learner,” Chin said. “She wants to win and do whatever it takes to win.”

But Cuba says she expects a lot of herself. She’s fulfilling her dream of playing for a major program in a major conference., even without tons of scholarship offers coming out of high school: Pitt was the only major program to extend an offer to Cuba. She mostly garnered attention from smaller D-1 schools like Bowling Green and Ohio University.

It hasn’t been something she has thought about. Cuba carries no chip on her shoulder and feels like she has nothing to prove. Rather, she plans to simply focus on setting goals and achieving them — individually and for her team.

“I like where I’m at,” Cuba said. “I always expect a lot of myself. I want to win the Big East tournament.”

Luckily for Cuba, this year the Panthers might have a better shot at that than ever. For only the second time in program history, the team started the year 4-0. No team in Pitt history has ever started 5-0, as the 2006 team tied its fifth game and lost the sixth. The 2006 team also made the Big East tournament, but it lost in the first round to Louisville. This year’s squad gets its chance to go 5-0 Friday when it plays at Drexel.

Regardless if the Panthers win their next game, both Chin and Cuba feel good about the team and where they are headed. And after her hot start in collegiate athletics, Cuba isn’t the only one wondering if she can make an All-Big East team or break records over the course of her career.

“If she continues on this pace, absolutely,” Chin said.