Pitt women’s soccer falls 1-0 to VCU

The Pitt women’s soccer team faced VCU at Ambrose Urbanic Field on Thursday night and was hoping to extend a three-game unbeaten streak at home to four games. However, after keeping the Rams at bay for the majority of the match, the Panthers gave up a critical goal in the 80th minute and were unable to recover.

VCU dominated Pitt in the offensive phase of the game, as the Rams outshot the Panthers 10-2 in the first half and 7-3 in the second half. They also put twice as many shots on goal, as four VCU shots were on target in comparison to two from Pitt. Pitt's two shots on goal came from Anna Bout and Athalie Palomo.

Pitt goalkeeper Caitlyn Lazzarini was able to come up with three saves, but a cross lofted by VCU midfielder Karen Lohrmann and headed in by VCU’s Samantha Jerabek in the 80th minute proved too difficult to stop. The late goal put VCU up 1-0 and would go unanswered by Pitt.

"I really thought the performance was pretty poor," Pitt head coach Randy Waldrum said in a postgame interview. "I thought we took a couple of steps backwards from our previous three games where I thought we really started making some strides in our possession and our attacking game model that we put in play. And tonight, their intensity right from the beginning, we never matched."

In addition to halting the Panthers’ home unbeaten streak, the shutout also ended the point streak of Pitt freshman Amanda West. Prior to Thursday’s game, West had never played in a game for Pitt without scoring a goal or recording an assist.

With the loss, Pitt falls to 3-3-1 on the season and VCU improves to 5-1-1, making the Rams one of the toughest teams the Panthers have faced in terms of record. Pitt will travel to Lynchburg, Virginia, on Sunday to take on a Liberty, which is 1-4-2 on the season. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET.