Pitt men’s, women’s soccer struggle in first ACC season

The inaugural season in the Atlantic Coast Conference for the Pitt Panthers soccer teams was a season to forget. The two teams had a combined record of 5-25-5 this season and compiled an ACC record of 0-22-2.

While this performance was certainly not what either women’s soccer coach Greg Miller or men’s coach Joe Luxbacher was looking for, a lot of this season’s struggles can be blamed on the strength of teams the Panthers faced.

Women’s Soccer

This season, Pitt women’s soccer faced nine NCAA Tournament teams (plus an exhibition against Kentucky), faced all four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, and three of the four College Cup finalists.

The Panthers faced a school record of seven nationally ranked opponents in 2013, which was two more than the previous record of five.

“This season was by far the hardest schedule I have ever faced, either as a head coach or as an assistant” Miller said.

While playing against the best teams in the nation, Miller wanted to ensure the nonconference schedule would not only prepare the team for conference play, but also garner wins.

“We tried to recognize the difficulty of our conference schedule when we booked our nonconference schedule,” Miller said. “We tried to lighten the load of our nonconference schedule a little bit so we could be a little more competitive in the nonconference, while scheduling top teams like Ohio State and Kentucky to prepare us for the rigors of the ACC.”

After starting the season with a record of 5-1-1, the Pitt women’s soccer team struggled mightily against ACC teams — a conference that featured eight out of the 64 teams in this season’s NCAA women’s soccer tournament.

During ACC play this season, the Panthers were 0-13-0 and were outscored 39-6 in those 13 games.

After struggling against Boston College and Clemson, the Panthers actually played their best match of the season against then-No. 1 and national championship favorite Virginia.

In the match, the Panthers scored the first goal before losing by a score of 3-1.

And after a trio of 4-0 losses to Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Florida State, as well as a 3-0 loss to Notre Dame, the team played better in the final three games of the season, especially in the 6-3 loss to Duke and the 3-1 loss to Wake Forest.

Miller said his team deserves credit for hanging tough through the end of the season.

“The Duke game, we fell apart early on, but our kids did a nice job of bouncing back to score an own goal and two nice ones,” Miller said. “Against Wake Forest, we scored on a lucky chance with a nice buildup. In that game, we were able to keep it interesting before giving up a third goal late.”

Men’s Soccer

For men’s soccer, the Panthers faced seven NCAA Tournament qualifiers, and three of the NCAA quarterfinalists. The schedule, while difficult, was nothing the Panthers were not accustomed to, according to sophomore midfielder Nick Wysong.

“Overall we did see some better teams,” Wysong said. “But as a whole for Pitt soccer, we didn’t play to our potential this season, and we need to make big changes in order to compete in the ACC.”

Pitt started the season with a pair of draws at home against Oakland and Howard, then took to the road to face NC State in the school’s first ACC match.

In the match, the Panthers held the Wolfpack scoreless into overtime, before falling 1-0 in extra time.

Following the heartbreaker against NC State, the Panthers played very well early on against Boston College, as junior transfer Zane Meehan tallied the program’s first ACC goal in the 2-1 loss to BC.

Pitt took its worst loss of the season against Virginia by a 5-0 margin, then played two of its better matches of the season when the Panthers picked up a pair of draws against Syracuse and Virginia Tech.

The road draw against Syracuse was the first ACC point in school history, and one of two ACC points the team would earn all season.

In the final home game of the season, the Panthers finally had the offensive success they were looking for, as they defeated Howard 9-0. Following the Howard match, Pitt closed its season with a 2-0 defeat against Notre Dame.

“The team played pretty good soccer this year, and anyone around the team knew we’re better than last season team,” Luxbacher said. “But for whatever reason, it doesn’t show in our record, because there were certainly games we could have won.”

In the end, the Panthers finished 1-11-4 (0-9-2 ACC) in their first ACC season, and struggled against the conference’s faster teams like North Carolina, Wake Forest and Virginia.

“In the Big East we did play top teams, but the game in the ACC is a lot faster and more up-tempo,” Luxbacher said. “Now that we’ve gotten a taste of what the ACC is like, it will be easier to focus on games. Now we finally know what we’re going up against, because we’ve seen these teams before.”

The largest issue for Pitt was scoring, as the Panthers scored only 13 goals in 16 matches, while allowing 26 to their opponents. ACC opponents outscored Pitt 20-1.

Despite the large goal differential, one of the bright spots for the team in 2013 was the play of sophomore goaltender Dan Lynd, who ended up near the top of the ACC in total saves (87 in 14 matches), while compiling a goals-against average of just 1.66.

“Having Dan come back next year for us is huge,” redshirt junior forward Cory Werth said. “[Dan] kept us in a lot of games this season, and if you look at the season he had, he was certainly big in net.”