PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pitt AD Heather Lyke said this week that winning at the university is contagious and much of that starts with the emergence of their soccer programs. Friday night, the men’s soccer team plays for a birth in the national championship game at 8:30p in Cary, North Carolina.
“I have an interesting team,” said Panthers Head Coach Jay Vidovich. “It’s been a bit of a grind throughout the year. We’ve had some ups and downs. We’ve had some really good performances.”
Many of those coming lately during their NCAA Tournament run. It started with a home 2-1 win over Cleveland State before a 3-0 upset at #16 Akron. Then the shocker, the Panthers beat #1 and unbeaten Kentucky in Lexington 2-1. That set up the Panthers to host Portland and eventually win 1-0 in the Elite 8 to bring us to Friday.
“We’ve become more confident with success throughout the tournament play,” Vidovich said. “We’ve seen a lot whether it’s playing at Akron or Kentucky or even before that in the ACC Tournament against NC State. It allowed us to start finding ourselves and find a consistent lineup.”
“We’ve gained consistency and experience as a unit. This may be the fifth game in a row where we’ve had the same lineup. That always helps. It was a whole new backline and goalkeeper this year.”
It’s not a new matchup though in the Final Four, Pitt was in the same position two years ago only to lose to the Hoosiers 1-0 in Cary, NC. The lone goal coming in the 79th minute.
“We are embracing a team that knows what to do in these moments,” Vidovich said. “There are four, maybe five (Pitt players) that know the experience. Hopefully they share in the locker room the moment. How prestigious it is and how to cherish it and the importance of going out and putting your best on the pitch.”
There was an intention to the schedule that Vidovich believes got Pitt to this point. He said all but one non-conference opponent was ranked when they played them to challenge them so they would be ready for the NCAA Tournament.
“You want players that are ambitious,” VIdovich said. “Who want to come here and are more interested in playing good soccer and preparing themselves to try and win something big. That doesn’t happen if you crank it up against lower-level teams and try and collect stats.
It comes from playing the best teams. That’s what we’ve tried to do.”
“Obviously, we have an advantage playing in the ACC, so we get to see a lot of good teams there. We are also fortunate that right around here Akron, West Virginia, Marshall and Georgetown are a bus ride away. We are fortunate to get them on the schedule. It’s taken some success for them to allow us to play them and just trying to make good on it and use those opportunities.”
“You can learn more from playing those type of teams, whether it’s a win or a loss, than you can having a lot of success against a weaker opponent.”
They faced a variety of pressure-filled moments against difficult teams. As Vidovich said, it’s been a grind. How often does a team reach this level with four losses and five ties in a 21-game schedule? All of those matches served a purpose and now Pitt is two wins from a goal that didn’t seem possible when Vidovich took over a winless conference team in 2016.
“I would never bet against us,” Vidovich said. “I feel pretty confident that right now we’ve seen a lot of good teams, so has Indiana. It will be a hell of a game, that much I can promise you.”