Pitt women soccer 2023
- Thread starter ThePanthers
- Start date
That's what happens when your first four opponents (and the next two as well) would be favored to all go a combined 0 for all of them if they played in the ACC.
The scheduling philosophies between the men and the women are about as different as possible. The men schedule lots of really good teams. The women do just about everything they can to avoid anyone with a pulse. The only power conference school (not that that is as important in soccer) that the women play in the non-conference is Cincinnati. And they were picked to finish 13th out of 14 in the Big 12. They also play Xavier, who is typically a pretty good A10 school. And that's about it.
Xavier is big east and a good team. They destroyed Tennessee last in year in first round of ncaa. They are a well coached team. Pitt has to get the women a tougher preseason. UNC, ND, FSU, VT and BC have played a tough schedule already. ND played Arkansas today. They have to have top 25 games early.
Xavier is currently ranked 17th and won today 5-1, but lost 1-0 to Illinois. That’s a legit test as Xavier is a tournament team.
They just might because if you look at the entirety of the Top 15-20 teams in the poll, Pitt has by far played the most cream puffs. The one thing I love about college WSOC is the top teams always schedule up.
I’m just going to come out and say it. This has been a pretty poor out of conference schedule. So far. At least Xavier is a legit tournament team. I would hold all judgements on this team until after Xavier game. Most ACC schools have had loaded OOC schedules, Pitt not so much.
Bowling Green isn’t really that good. BG doesn’t shy away from playing good teams, MSU, Cincy, Pitt, ND, But finally Pitt will play a real opponent when they take on Xavier.
For comparison on ACC schedules:
UNC has played PSU, Wisconsin, USC, Arkansas, and upcoming against south Carolina and Alabama.
Duke has played WVU, USC, Wisconsin, Stanford
FSU has played Texas AM, TCU, south Florida
Clemson has played south Carolina but does have Arkansas and Georgia coming up.
Notre Dame has played Arkansas and Michigan State
Pitt has got to find a way to build the out of conference schedule to play tougher teams.
If they don’t beat Xavier then they will have backed themselves into a position where they better snag a win against one or more of the top ACC teams in conference play. It’s baffling that they would schedule this way coming off of a successful season. As you pointed out, most every other program has challenged itself.
As I said, Pitt women haven’t played anyone and Xavier was a real test. Lose 2-1. I expected this loss as Xavier is solid.
Two more local players committed to big programs this week. Lily Bane from Canon Mac committed to PSU. She’s a good player from a Beadling GA team. Fiona Mahan from Avonworth committed to Alabama. She is also a good player from riverhounds ECNL. Riverhounds had two other very high level players from her age group leave and go play for the Internationals in Ohio. Riverhounds weren’t going to let Mahan walk too so they took good care of her and it worked out.
It’s funny. Girls soccer is quite different than say football, where if we lose a local player to another program we get upset. Both players here are nice players but not the type of players that Pitt was going to build around.
But here’s the thing, before Waldrum, the area was putting out plenty of D1 talent. But 90% of the players were going mid/low major, which for girls soccer that’s fine because these kids are students first and not playing for professional careers. Greg Miller’s arm needed to be twisted to add just one local player and that was after he was given one year to turn the program around. Waldrum comes in and immediately recruits and adds several local players in each class, many of them succeeding in the ACC, and now the rest of the college soccer world has taken notice and grabbing our players.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like the area wasn’t feeding players to PSU or UNC in the past. The player mentioned above is like the 6th to commit to PSU in the last 12 years. And the Brownsville player who is starting at UNC isn’t the first player to go to UNC. Klingenberg went there of course almost two decades ago. But now very deserving girls like the two players mentioned above are getting opportunities to play at these types of schools than there were 5-10 years ago. The ECNL and GA have allowed that. But Waldrum has also been a major contributor to it in my opinion.
Mertz and Yaple are perfect examples. They were youth players who didn’t have the opportunity to play in the Girls GA because it wasn’t here then. They committed to Dayton and Buffalo. When Waldrum got here, he got them to Pitt, they excelled, and it showed that our local players can play and contribute in the best conference in college soccer.
It’s funny. Girls soccer is quite different than say football, where if we lose a local player to another program we get upset. Both players here are nice players but not the type of players that Pitt was going to build around.
But here’s the thing, before Waldrum, the area was putting out plenty of D1 talent. But 90% of the players were going mid/low major, which for girls soccer that’s fine because these kids are students first and not playing for professional careers. Greg Miller’s arm needed to be twisted to add just one local player and that was after he was given one year to turn the program around. Waldrum comes in and immediately recruits and adds several local players in each class, many of them succeeding in the ACC, and now the rest of the college soccer world has taken notice and grabbing our players.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like the area wasn’t feeding players to PSU or UNC in the past. The player mentioned above is like the 6th to commit to PSU in the last 12 years. And the Brownsville player who is starting at UNC isn’t the first player to go to UNC. Klingenberg went there of course almost two decades ago. But now very deserving girls like the two players mentioned above are getting opportunities to play at these types of schools than there were 5-10 years ago. The ECNL and GA have allowed that. But Waldrum has also been a major contributor to it in my opinion.
Mertz and Yaple are perfect examples. They were youth players who didn’t have the opportunity to play in the Girls GA because it wasn’t here then. They committed to Dayton and Buffalo. When Waldrum got here, he got them to Pitt, they excelled, and it showed that our local players can play and contribute in the best conference in college soccer.
internationals are a serious ECNL program and highly respected nationally. We played them every year and actually played them well, tied them in the fall. Our team and internationals qualified for nationals with only 16 teams allowed to qualify. We were lucky, internationals just flat out talented and deserving. I’d send my kid to internationals also. They are loaded with talent at every age. Miya Bhutta is from Pittsburgh but played for internationals and is now starting for Stanford. They also have the number 1 player in the country who just committed to Stanford. I wouldn’t fault a kid for going there, but Riverhounds have done just fine sending kids to big programs. The girl at UNC is killing it. There are also a good handful of Pittsburgh girls getting national team looks and invitations. No idea how the Riverhounds freshman girl at Pitt is doing. But when we played her she never did anything. Riverhounds as a team never showed anything when we played them. But had good individual players.
PSU women are quite good, but Pitt is gaining on that program.
PSU women are quite good, but Pitt is gaining on that program.
Have you seen Katie Scott from Erie play? She is one of the top ranked kids in the country and is heading to PSU next year.
I’ll say it again but riverhounds simply have never been deep enough because they were never the top club locally and had to fight 2 other clubs for the best players. But there’s no doubt that they do a nice job developing players. And you can have elite high end talent who can’t be productive because there’s not enough talent around her. If riverhounds had to fight with just one other club instead of two, I think their teams would make much more noise on the national level.
As far as Internationals, yeah they’re legit for sure. Always have been been. Keri Sarver has always been a super high profile coach there. Is she still there? She has had stints as head coach of some of our national teams (U19) and I think is currently the top assistant for New Zealand? I used to know her very well and would organize with her club friendlies between our club and Internationals. Back when my kid played, my daughter’s team (because we weren’t GA yet) would have our rosters of majority mid major commits consistently beat her rosters full of players headed to the top programs in the country. I always felt awkward after games talking to her because we weren’t supposed to be doing that. But that’s an example of my point in the post above. If our teams of 5-10 years ago were GA or ECNL, those players would have been going to more elite programs in college, instead of A10, NEC, Patriot League and MAC schools.
It used to be local coaches would say if you want to play at Canisius or Kent St, we will help get you there. If you want to play at UNC or Duke, get it out of your head right now because it isn’t happening. Talented players now will have that opportunity if they’re good enough.
I’ve seen her play. Another very legit kid. I don’t recall if my kid played against her or not. I think she is on the 06 team that is stacked. Internationals develops these kids and sends them everywhere.
Knoxville has zero depth locally and pull from Chattanooga and Johnson City. Just not enough kids here talented enough nor getting developed.
My nephew spent time with Riverhounds before heading off to bigger and better. Not sure what the men’s club scene is like in Pittsburgh.
#32 RPI, a draw against #7 Notre Dame, and a schedule that avoids a regular season matchup against RPI #2 UNC…it certainly seems like they’re in position for another tournament bid.
I didn’t watch the match, but it appeared that Pitt dominated it. Duke’s only SOG was the PK they scored on. They only had 7 total shots. Pitt had 20 shots — 10 in each half and 8 on goal. Corner kicks were 8-2 Pitt.
Next game is Sunday vs #17 Wake Forest. Against at home.
They should make the tournament. I don’t see them collapsing because they have too many good scoring options. It’s not Amanda West vs the opponent anymore.
Next game is Sunday vs #17 Wake Forest. Against at home.
They should make the tournament. I don’t see them collapsing because they have too many good scoring options. It’s not Amanda West vs the opponent anymore.
This a win they can celebrate for sure. It was quite a poor schedule in the first half, and now with ACC play, we really see if they are too 25 or not. I think Duke is down this year, but will always recruit incredibly well. This is a really good win and hopefully more to come.
After Wake tied it up in early in the second half I thought that could be the biggest point of the season. Give up another one, lose the game, and with how bad the OOC schedule was that could be the loss that turns the season sour.
Instead, they dominate the rest of the game and score three more times. That's the kind of win that shows them they can play with anyone. Or, well, OK, maybe not the top teams in the conference. But everyone else.
Instead, they dominate the rest of the game and score three more times. That's the kind of win that shows them they can play with anyone. Or, well, OK, maybe not the top teams in the conference. But everyone else.
I would be shocked if they aren't ranked next week. They were something like 27th or 28th last week, and they just beat two ranked teams.
