The final matchday of the ACC regular season arrives this Thursday. Notre Dame women’s soccer, now ranked No. 13 in the nation with an overall record of 10-2-4 and a conference mark of 4-1-4, has everything to play for. The Irish will host Pittsburgh with a chance to win and lock up an ACC Tournament spot.
Notre Dame enters the match on the back end of a grueling stretch of play. Each of their last four games pitted the Irish against a ranked side, and Notre Dame fared respectably with a record of 2-1-1. The Irish dominated Cal and Stanford at home before drawing at No. 1 Duke on the road and most recently losing 2-0 to Virginia Tech back at Alumni Stadium.
Sunday’s match against the Hokies left Notre Dame shut out at home for the first time since Sept. 7, 2023. The Irish soundly outplayed their adversary, building up a 19-10 shooting advantage and taking six corner kicks in the second half alone. However, after tallying the opening goal just 10 seconds after halftime, Virginia Tech played a clinical defensive match, holding Notre Dame’s relentless attack at bay.
The Irish could have claimed a spot in the six-team ACC Tournament field on Sunday. Now, they’ll have to try again on Thursday. Notre Dame currently sits in a tie with Stanford for the final position, as both teams own 16 points. Given their 3-0 defeat of the Cardinal two Sundays ago, the Irish would use the tiebreaker to qualify if the season ended today, but Thursday can change the picture considerably.
If Notre Dame plays to a fifth ACC draw against Pittsburgh, it would clinch with a Stanford draw or loss against Cal. In the event of an Irish loss, they would make the tournament only by way of a Stanford loss. This scenario would push Notre Dame into a three-way tie with Stanford and Cal, two teams the Irish have beaten soundly for the tiebreaker edge.
With a win, the Irish could enter a murky tiebreaking scenario with Florida State, Wake Forest and Stanford. Both the Seminoles and Demon Deacons would need a loss to make that possible, and those losses aren’t likely to happen with Florida State visiting Miami and Wake Forest hosting NC State. Put simply, Notre Dame just needs to match Stanford or do it one better on Thursday night.
The Pittsburgh team looking to spoil Notre Dame’s chances has nothing to play for regarding the ACC Tournament. With a 3-4-2 conference record good for 11 points, the Panthers are well out of the running. They carry an overall mark of 9-5-3 and have left the national rankings after opening the season inside the top 25. Projected to finish eighth in the conference by the Preseason ACC Women’s Soccer Coaches Poll, Pitt currently occupies the 11th position.
As a program, Pittsburgh women’s soccer has just started to come around recently under seventh-year head coach Randy Waldrum. Despite opening play in 1996, the Panthers didn't reach the NCAA Tournament until 2022, when they advanced to the Sweet 16. They reached the Elite Eight a year later, setting program records for overall wins (17) and conference victories (6). However, the Panthers experienced the misfortune of facing dominant national champion Florida State in both the ACC and NCAA Tournaments that season. The Seminoles bounced them from both postseason fields.
This season, Pitt endured a bumpy start with a road draw at No. 14 Georgia and a home loss to Buffalo in mid-August. The Panthers managed to right the ship and win six straight matches by multiple goals from there, opening ACC play with a 3-1 defeat of Louisville. Since then, they’ve gone 2-4-2 with victories coming only against lowly Clemson and Syracuse. Pitt hasn’t earned a road win in conference play, losing to Cal and Florida State while drawing at Stanford and Miami. Wake Forest and North Carolina, two of the conference’s top dogs, have beaten the Panthers in Pittsburgh to round out their ACC ledger. Pitt hasn’t necessarily played poorly within the conference, but it hasn’t gotten the results to rank among the ACC’s best.
Notre Dame’s backline, which played without freshman center back Abby Mills on Sunday, should face plenty of pressure from the Panthers on Thursday. Pittsburgh leads the ACC with an average of 21.76 shots per match, tying for fifth in the conference with a scoring average of 2.24. For reference, Notre Dame has accumulated 20.06 shots and 2.56 goals per contest this season.
Pittsburgh also poses a considerable one-two punch with senior forwards Samiah Phiri and Sarah Schupansky. A year after scoring 11 goals in 21 starts, Phiri again ranks inside the ACC’s top 10 with eight goals. Schupansky most often sets her up, the Pittsburgh native assisting an ACC-high 15 times this season on the heels of a 36-point campaign in 2023. In goal, junior Ellie Breech has made a team-leading 15 starts but has allowed six goals in her last two games.
Notre Dame and Pittsburgh will kick off the regular-season finale at 7 p.m. on Thursday from Alumni Stadium.
