Pulse of Pittsburgh Soccer: Stakes get higher for Pitt women, Duquesne and Robert Morris men with start of conference play

September is here and Pittsburgh’s soccer schedule is in full swing.

In addition to the high school season hitting its stride, as we’ll continue to provide daily schedule and scoreboard updates, look for some more fun content to start coming starting this weekend and into next week.

The complete schedule can be found at the bottom of this post.

I was away for what felt like nearly two weeks, which is highly unusual this time of year, but will be catching up with some great Sounding Off on Soccer and Kids on the Pitch Podcast guests in the coming week.

In the meantime, Thursday during the fall season usually means the Women’s College Division I teams are back in action — and that’s no exception this week.

Here’s a snapshot of what’s ahead and at stake for Pittsburgh’s six DI college teams and the Riverhounds this coming week:

Pitt Women

When interviewing both Ben Waldrum, Head Coach and Randy Waldrum, now Sporting Director, for Pitt women’s soccer in July, both acknowledged that, with all due respect to USL W League competition that took place this Summer, women’s college matches at Ambrose Urbanic Field will provide stage for some of the highest-level women’s soccer you’ll see in Pittsburgh this year.

This weekend may be the pinnacle of that, when ACC competition begins for Pitt when they host both California and Stanford.

Quite frankly, it’s a pivotal weekend for Pitt women’s program, in the younger Waldrum’s first season, if they want to get off to a good start in the ACC.  After opening the season with four straight wins, the Panthers form has dropped as the competition has become a bit more intense, as they’re 0-4 in the last four (L-L-D-D).

Coming off back-to-back draws at home the Panthers will have to improve on holding off opponents.  In both draws, first against Cincinnati then Bucknell, Pitt opened the scoring but was unable to hold on for the win.

Thursday’s matchup marks Cal’s first-ever visit to Pittsburgh. The two sides met for the first time last season in Berkeley, where the Golden Bears earned a 1–0 result. The Golden Bears concluded non-conference play with a 3-1-4 record, suffering their only defeat in a 1–0 loss to Pepperdine.

On Sunday, Pitt will face College Cup runner-up and perennial National power, Stanford, who have featured Mt. Lebanon’s Mia Bhuta as one of its top players. Bhuta is now in her junior year and heading into the season, was selected for the MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List.  However, Bhuta hasn’t played since the team’s opener, when she left after 59th minute, with an injury.

Either way, this should be a weekend of quality women’s soccer being played at Ambrose — so if you get a chance — be sure to get your tickets today.

In addition, the Panthers (both men and women) this weekend will be debuting their Black and Gold kits.

Duquesne Women

While it’s not a City Game or Cross-Tahn rivalry match, with Youngstown State coming to Pittsburgh to face Duquesne on Thursday, there will lots of former WPIAL and Pittsburgh-area talent on both sides of the pitch.

This also provides the perfect opportunity for both schools to take part in the ‘Play for Moe’ game.

For the Dukes (4W-2L-0D), who lost 1-0, to Bowling Green, on Sunday, senior forward Maya Matesa, has been off to a torrid start, with eight goals in the first six games of the year, has her climbing the ranks in the Duquesne record book.

Having already established a career high for goals in a season, Matesa became just the fourth player on the Bluff to reach 20 career goals thanks to her marker in a 4-1 win over Cleveland State (9/4), as she currently is tied for third in the Duquesne career record book with Erica Carey (2002-05). The school standard of 25 markers is owned by Katie O’Connor from 2015 to 2018. Matesa also ranks fifth in the career record book with 47 career points.

Youngstown State is off to a 1W-6L-0D start though they have played a tough schedule, including the likes of power five schools like Missouri, Indiana, Texas Tech, Michigan and St. John’s.  The Penguins feature a number of former WPIAL standouts including:  Grace Nellas (Mt. Lebanon), Leah Weiland and Chloe Weiland (Butler), Emma Rigone (Norwin), Sara Felder (Greensburg Central Catholic), Kendalyn Umbell (Yough) and Ava Yurko (Latrobe).

Robert Morris Women

The Colonials will wrap-up non-conference play on Thursday, with a road trip to UMBC.

Michelle Rick’s squad heads into the contest after a week that saw a 2-1 loss to Bowling Green and a 0-0 draw against Saint Francis. In the draw, graduate goalkeeper Abbey Cowles made her first appearance as a Colonial, earning a clean sheet. Against Bowling Green, Paloma Swankler netted her first goal of the season, assisted by Shauna Gamble and Ava Trethewey, who each recorded their first helpers of the season. RMU had the majority of offensive chances in both games, outshooting the Falcons 8-3 and the Red Flash, 17-5.

Through six non-conference games, sophomore Madison Hurst leads the team with two goals, while senior captain Jillian Marvin has a team-high two assists. The defensive duo of Shauna Gamble and Emerson Johngarlo have been mainstays, playing every minute of every match (540). Emma Cameron has started in five games, posting two wins, two clean sheets, and 19 saves.

The Colonials will open Horizon League play hosting Milwaukee on Thursday, September 18, at 4:00 PM.

Pitt Men

After losing a wild, back-and-forth ACC opener last Friday at Clemson, the Panthers got their swagger back on Monday, with a 4-1 win against Butler.

No. 10 Pitt Men’s Soccer Returns to Form With Dominant Win Over Butler

Always a nemesis for Pitt — is Notre Dame — who head into Friday’s match at Ambrose Urbanic Field as their first ACC contest.  The Fighting Irish have started the season with a 1W-1L-2D start, but as the case with Chad Riley’s squad, they’re a team that is very difficult to break down — as that will be the challenge for Jay Vidovich and the Panthers.   Pitt has shown it can score in bunches, looking at three contests including three goals in the first seven minutes against Michigan State, the Clemson match and then Monday against Butler. The Fighting Irish may have only one win, but they’ve only surrendered two goals this season against some high-level non-conference competition (Michigan, IU Indy, Indiana and Oregon St).

Duquesne Men

After a very strong showing, knocking off ACC’s Syracuse on the road last week then a bit of a disappointment on Tuesday, playing Mount Saint Mary’s to a scoreless draw, Duquesne men have started the season without a loss (3W-0L-2D), but now start Atlantic 10 competition at home on Saturday against St. Bonaventure.

With conference matches, Head Coach Chase Brooks knows that the competition will be fierce once again in the A10, but he has the Dukes playing very well, especially on the defensive side this season.

With the exception of the two goals given up in the first half against Robert Morris in the Cross-Tahn rivalry match a few Sundays ago, the Duke have posted shutouts in its other four matches.

Robert Morris Men

Conference play also begins for the defending Horizon League champions, as they’ll host Detroit Mercy at North Athletic Complex on Saturday afternoon.

The Colonials (2W-1L-2D) are coming off its wildest match of the season on Sunday, where they suffered their first loss, at Niagara, 4-3. At one point, RMU were trailing 3-0, but showed plenty of fight and firepower with three 2nd half goals.

Head Coach Jonathan Potter’s squad clawed back but it was too little too late.  The Colonials will need to put together more complete performances against conference competition as getting back into the postseason won’t be an easy task in the Horizon League.

Riverhounds

The Hounds finally got the road monkey off its backs, with an impressive 2-0 win at Oakland in — lets face it — a match they badly needed a result.

Pittsburgh returns home for a match against the league’s top team with a bit more confidence, especially with striker Augi Williams coming off a Player of the Week honored performance where he netted his first brace of the season.

Saturday’s opponents, Louisville City FC, are so far ahead in the standings that they’ve already clinched a spot in the postseason.

While the Hounds have not posted a win against a top four team in the Eastern Conference this season (0W-4L-3D vs Louisville, Charleston, Loudoun United and North Carolina), one of their best performances came on the road in a scoreless draw at Louisville.

LouCityFC social media team were having some fun with the match-up, pointing to previous successes in Pittsburgh.

The Hounds will need to put together a complete, 90-minute effort if they want to earn a statement win on Saturday at Highmark.