Randy Waldrum is in charge, with son Ben (formerly with FC Dallas) as one of the AC's. I lived in the area from 00-09, so it's a former home team (though I never went to a match because their former venue was inaccessible to paratransit). They won one of their exhibitions, against Fairleigh Dickinson, 2-1 on PKs. At Ohio State as I type this. Regular season starts vs. Ohio on the 17trh. https://pittsburghpanthers.com/schedule.aspx?path=wsoc
Randy gave Notre Dame two national championships in 2004 and 2010. Will be interesting to see what he can build at Pitt. Great coach, and his name carries weight, but will it be enough recruiting against the other name brands out there? His gigs since leaving Notre Dame have been kind of bizarre. Seems like he may have finally figured out what he's really good at-- is coaching women's soccer at the college level. His shadow looms large at South Bend to this day.
WHO WON!!? Ohio st or Pitt? I gotta say, teams are doing a really horrible job of coverage in their exhibition games! It’s greatly disappointing. Hell, PSU (one of THE premiere programs in the nation) posts nothing after two very big games! (BC and Gtown). It isn’t right they post nothing, not even on their twitter account! Seems like the big 10 and northeastern teams are terrible and secretive about exhibition results...whereas kudos to the southern teams, sec teams and Duke for actually caring and posting video.
If Pitt finishes with a record better than 3 wins -- 13 losses -- and 2 ties, my numbers say it will suggest Waldrum may be starting to turn the program around. Sorry if that's bad news, but it's better to be realistic and enjoy it when the team surpasses realistic expectations.
Not sure with the Ohio State match (I'm on an unfamiliar compute and can't find that nugget). Amaia Pena (Portugalete, Spain) kept for the win against FDU.
Ty. Pitt brought in a highly touted freshman (Penaranda) and I'm curious what their plan with him is.
As much as Randy Waldrum would probably love to play Johan Penaranda in goal this season. . .I don't think the NCAA is going to allow it so its pretty safe to say he didn't play in the women's game.
Congrats to Pitt for two wins to start the season and for the moment to be the number 2 team in the country according to the Adjusted RPI !! (I'll let CP explain that little statistic....)
📰 | Pitt remains unbeaten in a 1-1 draw against Ken State as Anna Rico tallies her third straight goal🔗: https://t.co/FyTeIV3UUZ#H2P pic.twitter.com/PZSnHkhXST— Pitt Women's Soccer (@Pitt_WSOC) August 25, 2018
Not to be overly negative, but Pitt are poor. These first four games look like that of one scheduled by Miller when he thought he had a year left and wanted some results. I have watched 2 of the 3 games so far, and currently watching the fourth. They beat Ohio University and were outshot - sub .500 in 2017 in the MAC They went to overtime with Morehead State - they won 3 games last season They tied and played an even match against Kent State - a good MAC team Currently tied with JU 1-1 - sub .500 team in 2017 in the ASUN I hope Randy can sell recruits on his name alone, because I do not see them winning a game in the ACC being that they do not play Syracuse this year. On top of that, after today the non-conference games won't leave much left on the table as fas as wins.
I know nothing about the JU Dolphins, but... 📰 | The Panthers move to 3-0-1 on the season with a 2-1 victory over Jacksonville after goals by Aideen O'Donoghue & Dixon Veltri!🔗: https://t.co/UlfcXqqQfd#H2P pic.twitter.com/VDZfDXpPtI— Pitt Women's Soccer (@Pitt_WSOC) August 26, 2018
JU replaced the programs winningest coach in late April with a coach with very little meaningful or relevant college experience who happens to have a brother on the JU board of trustees. Picked to finish last in the ASun by a wide margin and they probably won’t win more than 3 games this season. Not a quality win for Pitt...
Figured not, and what a weird program to schedule unless you're breaking from a string of high-quality opponents.
My simulation predicted Pitt wins over Ohio, Morehead, and Jacksonville, which they got. It predicted a loss to Kent State, whereas they got a tie. The simulation can be pretty crude, since it is based only on a combo of teams' RPI trends over the last 8 years and their RPIs over the last 2 years, but it's as good an RPI-only-based forecasting system as I can come up with. What I think it may be quite good for (emphasis on may) is tracking whether a new coach has a program changing directions. If one wants to rely on the Law of Small Numbers (which is a law only in the human mind and not in real life) -- "Any data sample is reliable no matter how small" -- it looks like Waldrum may have turned the ship a little since his results have been a little better so far than the simulation says they "should have" been.
Yeah it's too small, especially since all 3 wins are by 1 goal and one was in OT. I wish him the best, but they're going to lose a lot (all?) of their conference games.
Yeah, the simulation had them at 3-13-2, but now it looks like they'll end up 3-12-3. That would be a very, very slight directional change. But, there are lots of games yet to play. Let's see how they end up.
I think they are turning the ship in the right direction. If nothing else, at least people are paying attention to a program that no one normally paid any attention to. May take a few years until the results come for them
FINAL | Pitt falls to (RV) TCU on the road. Pitt 0, TCU 4#H2P pic.twitter.com/NbY6eCz89m— Pitt Women's Soccer (@Pitt_WSOC) August 31, 2018
Will they be better than the disaster that was CGM? Probably. The recruits he is getting are nowhere near ACC level quality. There is a general wait and see approach with many people believing he is well past his ND glory days. He massively under-achieved and his insistence in bringing his son along shows where his priorities are. 4-0 to TCU is a sign of things to come. TCU is solid but they aren't FSU, UVA, UNC and co. Once they get to KU they may win 1 game. He is a name.
Pitt loses to UNT 4-1. https://pittsburghpanthers.com/news/2018/9/2/womens-soccer-pitt-stopped-short-at-north-texas.aspx
Well they at least beat last years record so its headed in the right direction. Going to be a tough road with ACC starting up but I think they will pick up 1 or 2 wins in conference play. If they win 2 more games on the year they will double last years win total. That would be a pretty big accomplishment in the 1st year. https://www.cardiachill.com/2018/9/...2-0-city-game-panthers-dukes-pittsburgh-women