PITT SPOILS ACC OPENER, CRUSHES VIRGINIA TECH 4-1

By Nels Williams

Staff Writer

September 16, 2022

BLACKSBURG — All Taylor Price could do was shake her head and try to move on after being handed the fifth yellow card of the night dished out to Virginia Tech in the 84th minute. The nightmare that the Hokies couldn’t snap themselves out of Friday evening continued.

In a game that many anticipated would be a nail biter and a fierce battle between two tough squads, Pitt (8-1-0, 1-0-0 ACC) instead spoiled the party, defeating Virginia Tech (6-1-2, 0-1-0 ACC) in its ACC opener at Thompson Field, 4-1.

“I thought we prepared pretty well getting into this game, but I don’t think we had the right mentality,” Tech head coach Chugger Adair said after the loss. “We weren’t very good (at) individual defending tonight, team defending a commitment to play, so I was disappointed with that.”

Pitt didn’t give the Hokies time to settle and set the tempo the way they wanted to, with senior midfielder Landy Mertz scoring the first goal of the match just three minutes in.

The Hokies would tie it and looked to get back in the fight in the 39th minute, with Emmalee McCarter finding the back of the right side of the net on a penalty kick, picking up her first goal of the season.

However, the momentum Virginia Tech was looking to build after tying would quickly dissipate. Less than a minute later in the 40th minute, Pitt defender Katie Zailiski would retake the lead for the Panthers.

And, one minute later, in the 41st, the Panthers tallied another. The third of the half for Pitt, this time coming off the foot of forward Mackenzie Evers.

“I think (our game) just went downhill a little bit and we could never really get ourselves up climbing the hill that we created (in) the first half,” Adair said.

And the hole was dug even further in the second half.

Pitt came out strong early once more, tallying its fourth score of the night just two minutes in, after forward Sarah Schupansky moved the soccer ball past Virginia Tech goalkeeper Lauren Hargrove.

Hargrove, who started in net, allowed all four goals and made eight total saves.

It felt as though there were flashes that the Hokies would capitalize upon here and there, but it was the finishing touch that was dearly missed in a team that looked to get started on the right foot in ACC contention.

“(We) had a couple of balls off the crossbar here and there,” Adair said. “We need to take those chances and hope we can get one of those to really turn the swing a little bit but it didn’t fall for us.

A tight whistle would also sow frustration in the Hokies, with 13 fouls called on Virginia Tech, and five of the six yellow cards dealt Friday evening each given to different individual Virginia Tech players.

“We just gotta put a full 90 together,” Emmalee McCarter said, who was the lone goal scorer for the Hokies.

“I think we have spurts of minutes here and there, and you know, they’re good spurts, but I think we need to be more consistent with pulling out the full 90 minutes of the game.”

Six days stands between Virginia Tech and its next opponent, NC State (5-1-3). The team faces off against the Wolfpack in Raleigh, N.C. on Thursday night at 7 p.m., hoping to rebound against its second ACC opponent it’ll face.

“We’re gonna have to take a look at NC State and see what they’re like,” Adair said. “They’re a very strong possession team with some very dynamic athletes that can turn the game so we’re gonna have to work first of all on our individual funding and team defending that was sloppy tonight, so that’ll be the first thing, and then how we get forward how we create chances and how we take our chances that we create.”