Women’s Soccer: Pitt looks for first ACC win in final regular season game

Pitt women’s soccer plays its final game of the season tonight in College Park, Md., against the Maryland Terrapins. In this game, Pitt also finds itself searching for its first point of ACC play. 

“We hope to gain some points from this game,” head coach Greg Miller said. “We’ve been trying to find a win, a tie, something. Because this is our last opportunity, we certainly want to make something of it.”

Pitt (4-13-1, 0-12 ACC) enters the matchup with Maryland (9-9, 5-7 ACC) off a 6-3 loss to Duke this past Sunday. The Panthers fell behind 6-0 in the first half, but scored three goals in the second, which Miller hopes will create momentum heading into their next match.

“Coming off the Duke game where we didn’t have a good start to the game, but ended well,” Miller said, “hopefully we can carry the momentum from the last game against Duke into this game against Maryland.” 

After finishing last season with an overall record of 7-10-2 and a 2-6-2 Big East mark, hopes were high for this season. Unfortunately for Miller and the rest of the Panthers, this season, the team’s first in the ACC, has been extremely disappointing.

Since starting the season 4-1-1, the Panthers have lost 12 straight matches since conference play began in September. In fact, the Panthers have been outscored in ACC games by a 35-5 margin. 

This season, Maryland has struggled, especially in conference play. After starting the season ranked No. 17,, Maryland is no longer ranked, due to a murderous stretch of games played in the ACC.

Miller expects the Terps to be a tough match for the Panthers, with the Terps looking to extend their season beyond this one final regular season game.

“Maryland is fighting for a postseason spot, both in the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament,” Miller said. “Getting three points against a team [similar to] us is going to be critical for us.”

Thursday’s match is the first between the conference foes but likely the last for a while, because Maryland moves to the Big Ten conference next season.

Thursday’s match will also be the last time that seniors Dana DelleFemine, Caroline Keefer, Katie Lippert, Alyssa Meier and Morgan Sharick will play in a Panthers uniform.

“It’s a tough situation for [our seniors], because they’ve been through a lot over the course of their careers,” Miller said. “I am sure they would love to end their careers with a win or a point in [the ACC].”

Those seniors are somewhat of an unintentional casualty of Pitt’s move to the ACC, as they went from playing against Big East competition to the highest level of competition collegiate women’s soccer has to offer.

“Coming into this season, this was not the ideal situation for them,” Miller said. “I’m sure that they want to go out and lead this team and be the first class to get a point or a win in the ACC.”

While earning Pitt’s first point in ACC soccer would be a positive send-off for this year’s seniors, relative to the anguish suffered this season, Maryland looms large in the way of that goal. For a Pitt team that’s struggled to score this year, Maryland has defended well — only 11.9 percent of opponent’s shots have found their target.

“I know [Maryland] coach [Jonathan] Morgan is going to have them extremely prepared and ready for this match,” Miller said. “It should be a good battle.”