Inside The Panthers

Pitt Men's Soccer Earns Top NCAA Tournament Seed

Pitt Panthers men's soccer earned a top NCAA Tournament Seed.

Dominic Campbell

Pitt Men's Soccer Celebrates A Goal
Pitt Men's Soccer Celebrates A Goal / Courtesy of Pitt Athletics

PITTSBURGH -- Pitt Panthers men's soccer have had a fantastic 2024 season and will go into the NCAA Tournament with a high seed.

The Panthers earned the No. 2 overall seed, equivalent to the second best No. 1 seed, which will allow them to host through to the College Cup. This is the second time they've earned the No. 2 overall seed, doing so in the 2020-21 season, which was the first time they made the College Cup.

Pitt will face the winner of Cornell vs. Fordham, who play in the First Round on Nov. 21, at Ambrose Urbanic Field on Nov. 25 in the Round of 32.

The other top seeds in Pitt's bracket include No. 7 Hofstra, No. 10 Duke and No. 15 Missouri State.

The other four top seeds in the NCAA Tournament include No. 1 Ohio State, No. 3 Denver and No. 4 Georgetown. Pitt defeated both Denver and Georgetown, 2-0 at home this season, with the former coming on Oct. 7 and the latter coming in the season opener on Aug. 22.

The ACC, itself had seven seeded teams, including No. 8 Wake Forest, No. 9 Clemson, No. 11 Virginia No. 12 SMU and No. 16 Stanford and two at-large bids in North Carolina and NC State, with nine teams making the NCAA Tournament out of 15 total.

Pitt won the ACC Regular Season Title for the first time in program history, as they finished 6-2 in conference play, with their only losses to Cal at home on Oct. 11 and Syracuse on the road on Nov. 1. That Cal lost came at a time that sickness spread rapidly through the Pitt squad.

They had three ranked wins in the ACC, all coming on the road. This includes a 3-1 victory, over No. 22 SMU on Sept. 7 in their ACC opener, 2-0 over No. 17 Virginia Tech on Sept. 28 and 2-1 vs. No. 7 North Carolina on Oct. 19, featuring two goals from graduate student midfielder Arnau Vilamitjana, including the winner in the 88th minute.

Pitt had home wins of 3-2 vs. Louisville on Sept. 13, 2-0 over Boston College on Sept. 20 and 4-1 over Virginia on Oct. 25.

The Panthers finished the regular season 12-4 overall, which is a big improvement over their 6-5-4 (W-L-D) finish in the 2023 regular season. They also held the No. 1 ranking for three weeks, the first time doing so since 2020.

Pitt's other defeats came to Penn on the road on Sept. 1 and High Point at home on Oct. 14 for their other two regular season losses.

They earned a First Round bye in the ACC Tournament, but played poorly vs. No. 9 Virginia, losing 2-0 in the Quarterfinals on Nov. 10.

Pitt has had great success under head coach Jay Vidovich in the NCAA Tournament, with this the sixth straight season they've made it in. He led the program to three straight Elite Eights from 2020-22 and two College Cups in the 2020-21 and 2022 seasons.

The Panthers will look to win their first National Title in program history and the first for the University since football won it back in 1976.

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Dominic Campbell
DOMINIC CAMPBELL

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