No. 23 Pitt Concludes Regular Season At Home Friday Against Notre Dame

PITTSBURGH – The Pitt men's soccer team (7-3-4, 3-2-2 ACC) will welcome the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to Ambrose Urbanic Field Friday night for their regular season finale. Friday's match will air live on ACC Network Extra at 7:00 pm.

Prior to Friday's match, the Panthers will honor their 10 seniors as part of their Senior Day festivities at Ambrose Urbanic Field. This amazing group of young men have helped turn the Pitt men's soccer program into a national brand over their storied careers.

FOLLOW ALONG

Friday night's contest will air live on ACC Network Extra and can be found online HERE.
Live stats for Friday's game can be found HERE.
Live updates throughout the game will also be posted on Twitter by following the Pitt men's soccer account @Pitt_MSOC.

THE SERIES – NOTRE DAME

This meeting marks the 32nd meeting of all-time between the two programs with Notre Dame owning the 20-7-4 edge in the series.
Notre Dame won all three meeting against the Panthers a season ago including in the NCAA Tournament as they advanced 4-2 on penalty kicks in the Elite Eight.
The Fighting Irish are 9-2-2 all-time in games played in Pittsburgh.
The last win for the Panthers in the series came on April 3, 2021 when they secured a 2-0 home victory over the Fighting Irish.

SCOUTING THE FIGHTING IRISH

Notre Dame enters Friday with a 8-6-1 overall record and a 3-4 ACC mark as they have won three straight.
The Fighting Irish are currently the No. 8 seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament but can move up or fall depending on Friday's result.
Notre Dame is led offensively by Daniel Russo who has five goals, four assists and 14 points on 30 shots while Matthew Roou has four goals, four assists and 12 points with a team-high 33 shots. Paddy Burns is enjoying a strong campaign with five goals (two game-winners) for the Irish.
In goal, Bryan Dowd has made 15 starts and owns a 8-6-1 record with a 1.31 goals-against average, .642 save percentage and two shutouts.

FACING RANKED OPPONENTS

The Panthers are no stranger to nationally ranked opponents. Pitt has played a total of nine nationally ranked opponents through their first 14 games of the season for the first time in program history.
Pitt opened the season with back-to-back wins over top-10 programs for the first time in program history as they downed No. 2 Georgetown 2-1 and No. 6 West Virginia 3-0.
Pitt is 4-0-2 against top-5 opponents over the last two seasons as they downed Georgetown (No. 2), Clemson (No. 2), Duke (No. 3) and North Carolina (No. 4) during the regular season and tied Notre Dame (No. 4) in the Elite Eight last season and Duke (No. 2) this season.
Overall, Pitt is 7-2-5 against nationally ranked foes over the last two seasons.
Over the last three seasons, Pitt owns a 11-5-5 record against ranked opponents.
The Panthers have played more ranked foes than any other ACC team this season. Pitt's strength of schedule is #8 in the country while their opponent's strength of schedule is #2.

SCORING FIRST A MUST FOR PITT

One of the keys to victory for the Panthers over the last four seasons has been scoring the first goal of the match.
Since 2019, Pitt owns a 39-1-2 overall record when they record the first goal of the match.
The Panthers are 6-0 this year when scoring the first goal while being just 1-3-3 when allowing the first goal of the match.
Pitt hasn't lost a game when scoring the first goal since falling to #2 Indiana 3-2 in double overtime on August 30, 2019.

Season             Record             Win %
2022                 6-0-0                1.000
2021                 11-0-2              .923
2020-21            14-0-0              1.000
2019                 8-1-0                .889

HOME TURF ADVANTAGE

The Panthers have been one of the best teams in the country on their home turf over the last four seasons as they own a 28-4-4 record at Ambrose Urbanic Field.
Pitt held a 19-match home winning streak from Oct. 7, 2019 to Nov. 10, 2021, which at the time was the longest streak in the ACC and second longest unbeaten streak in the nation.
Head coach Jay Vidovich is 34-17-6 at home in his seven seasons at Pitt.
Since the start of the 2019 season, Pitt has outscored its opponents 104-38 at home including a 20-10 advantage this season.
The Panthers win percentage (.838) at home over the past four seasons is the best in the ACC and 7th best overall in the NCAA.

Home Win % Since 2019

# TEAM                  RECORD             %
1. Georgetown        36-2-5           .895
2. Missouri State     32-3-2           .892
3. New Hampshire   29-2-4           .886
4. Washington         32-4-2           .868
5. Kentucky             33-3-5           .866
6. Campbell             28-2-6           .861
7. Pitt                     29-4-4           .838
8. Cornell                15-2-3           .825
9. Clemson              35-7-4           .804
10. Yale                       13-3-2            .778

PANTHERS PLACE FIVE PLAYERS IN TOP DRAWER SOCCER MIDSEASON TOP-100 LIST

Top Drawer Soccer released their midseason Top-100 player rankings last week and the Panthers were well represented on the list.
In all, Pitt had five representatives on the list led by junior midfielder Filip Mirkovic who ranked #4. Valentin Noel was #8, Bertin Jacquesson was #14, Rodrigo Almeida was #46 and Jackson Walti was #53.
Pitt was the only team in the nation to have five players ranked inside the top-53 in the country.

UP NEXT

Pitt will host an ACC Tournament First Round match on Wednesday, Nov. 2 at Ambrose Urbanic Field.
The Panthers have not secured a seed or opponent for the conference tournament.
With a win over ND, Pitt will be the #5 seed and host #12 Virginia Tech.

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