Pitt men’s soccer handed 1-0 loss by Notre Dame

The Pitt men’s soccer team traveled to South Bend, Indiana, to take on Notre Dame in its regular-season finale on Friday night, but despite a decent defensive effort, the Panthers were unable to get much going offensively and fell to the Fighting Irish in a 1-0 loss.

Notre Dame pulled out to an early lead in the 17th minute, when Irish defender Felicien Dumas threaded a pass through to Irish forward Jack Lynn, setting him up for a breakaway. Lynn capitalized on the chance by slotting a low shot past Panthers goalkeeper Arie Ammann to put his team up 1-0.

Despite outshooting the Irish 15-5 on the night, the Panthers were unable to make anything of their chances and never came up with an answer to Lynn’s early goal. In fact, Pitt was fortunate to avoid a deeper deficit, as Irish midfielder Mohamed Omar put a shot on goal in the sixth minute off a corner kick. However, Panthers defender Braden Kline deflected it away from the open net.

Even with the loss, Pitt finished with the fourth-best conference record in the ACC at 4-3-1 and secured the fourth seed and a first-round bye in the ACC tournament. The team also finished second in the ACC Coastal and could come out of the 2019 season with its first winning record since 2008. However, that all depends on how the team performs in the tournament.

In addition to a first-round bye, Pitt has secured home-field advantage for its matchup with the winner of Wednesday’s game between Duke and NC State. That second-round game will be played on Nov. 10 at 3 p.m. ET.