Taylor Price makes a tackle against a Pitt Panther towards the latter half of the match. (Virginia Tech Athletics)
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.”
I think we’re gonna have to take a look at NC State and see what they’re like. 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.
McCarter:
Y’know it’s just part of the game, sometimes this happens. But I think as a whole I think we’ll be back and ready to play NC State Thursday. We just have to have a better mentality and we gotta finish some of the chances that were created.
We just gotta put a full 90 together. 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.
Mackenzie:
Before the game I was definitely super nervous because it was my senior year, so nerves a little bit but I was super super excited to play especially Pitt you know, my home state, hate Pitt, but y’know really excited to play against them and they’ve always been a good competition and stuff but definitely got my nerves out right after the whole celebration right before the game started but definitely super excited when the game started and whatnot, but it is what it is I guess. For the game, we’re definitely a little upset about it. I know I am still emotional about y’know just the game descended, super emotional about it. But at the end of the day, you know I’m happy that everybody was able to celebrate and come together.
I think off the pitch, one of my favorite moments was actually (the team) went to our friends lake house for some team bonding this past season, so that was definitely a really good moment/memory for us. And then on the pitch, we play a lot of tech ball that’s like we tried for the past couple years we’ve tried to get girls to play tech ball and now we’ve kind of started to have tournaments with it. So I know that like that’s been really fun playing tech ball with my team and getting closer on or off the field.
So (tech ball) is kind of like ping pong but the table is kind of curved, so it’s kind of like ping pong. So you can just play the ball like one touch back and forth across the table with a partner, of course, but that’s pretty much what tech ball is.
Victoria Moser, her parents, lovely for us to have us (at Smith Mountain Lake).
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