Soccer scoring drought continues against ‘Cuse

The Pitt women’s soccer team’s drought continues, as they went scoreless for the sixth… The Pitt women’s soccer team’s drought continues, as they went scoreless for the sixth straight game on Sunday versus Syracuse.

Fortunately, Jamie Pelusi stopped all seven shots the Orange attempted on goal to preserve a 0-0 tie in double overtime. The Panthers have not won a game since beating nationally ranked West Virginia on September 1st.

In this tightly-contested match, the calls did not go in favor of the Panthers, as they were slapped with four yellow cards, compared to only one for Syracuse. Pitt head coach Sue Moy Chin was not pleased about this.

“I thought the ref was too quick to card us,” Chin said. “Some of the cards given to us I didn’t think deserved cards. The ref was inconsistent and the game wasn’t as physical as the box score will show.”

The Orange’s golden opportunity came in the 78th minute when, after Jen Taormina fired a shot, Syracuse was given another free kick because of encroachment by Pitt. However, the scoring hopes faded when Lauren Cappelli kicked wide. The teams were even in shot attempts, but the Orange put seven shots on goal to Pitt’s four.

Pitt had several chances to break their scoring drought. Junior midfielder Corina Sebesta fired two shots in the first half, but both were long. The first attempt was a header off Jacqueline Reuter’s free kick in the 24th minute, the second a kick that went above the goal in the 38th minute.

As overtime loomed, the Panthers’ hopes came to Meta Haley. With nearly two minutes left, Haley tried to chase down a ball played by Jennifer Kritch, but Syracuse goalie Emily Kowalczyk beat her to it, ensuring that the game went into extra periods.

In the first minute of overtime, Pitt tried to conclude matters when fielder Kristina Francois struck a shot that Kowalczyk had to leap to save. Two minutes later, Haley threatened again, getting the ball off a breakaway, but she was stripped of the ball. Haley fired a strike from the side just before the first overtime ended.

Both defenses held through in the second overtime. Chin was pleased with the Panthers’ effort under pressure.

“I was very pleased with the shots on goal in overtime,” Chin told pittsburghpanthers.com. “We had a couple really good chances. We are really getting there, and today we were able to get a more creative attack going.”

The coach did point out that this kind of effort can’t be exclusive to extra time.

“We need to be able to play with that intensity during the entire game, not just when it is in overtime,” she said.

Taormina and Amanda Arcuri paced the Orange with two shots each, as Syracuse (2-5-3 overall, 1-0-2 Big East) tied their third-straight game. Pitt (2-5-2, 1-1-1) hosts Seton Hall Friday at 7 p.m. at Founders Field.