Syracuse Women’s Soccer Slays Pitt Panthers

 By Ben Anderson


    Syracuse Women’s Soccer broke cold streaks and made history Thursday night defeating the Pitt Panthers 2-1 at SU Soccer Stadium.

Syracuse Women's Soccer Lineup

    The Orange entered with a five-match scoring drought as well as knocking off the Panthers for the first time in nine years and the first time in the 315 in nearly a decade. 


    Abby Incorvaia found the back of the net on a redemption shot after being called offsides on an initial goal to give the Orange the advantage four minutes into the match. 


    “I’m really sick of heartbreaking moments,” Syracuse head coach Nicky Thrasher Adams talking about her mentality entering the contest. “I'm ready for something to go on our side. What a response. Two goals in the five minutes like that could have totally brought us down. But that was an energizer that we can do it."

Abby Incorvaia attempting a throw in 

    The attack continued for the Orange, firing off five shots including two on goal in the first 10 minutes.


    Pitt answered back, ending the first half, outshooting the Orange 13-3 for the remainder of the period.


    Junior goalkeeper Maya Namoli played lights out for the Orange, making numerous saves including a diving block in the final seconds of the first half. 

SU goalie Maya Namoli

    The Panthers suffered only its second shutout of the season, the prior being a 1-0 loss against Texas at the beginning of the season.


    Pitt’s defense came up big, punching out a shot inches away from the box with 23 minutes remaining in the match. The play was so close that Syracuse challenged the play and the officials ruled that the ball never crossed the line. 


    Pitt continued the attack tying the game at 1-1 with freshman Desiree Reed scoring her first career goal finding the back of the net with 22 minutes remaining in the match.


    Syracuse answered the game-winning strike with 2:44 remaining in the contest with Farrah Stephens-Martin taking a cross on the far side and finding the left corner of the net past Elli Johnson. 

Otto being Otto

    “We practice our free kicks a lot,” Incorvaia said. “We know everyone in the box is hungry and determined to get on it however they can.” 


After suffering the month-long cold spell, Adams went to pushing out positivity which finally paid off.


    “We kept it positive the last few weeks,” Adams said. “Showing them how many positive clips and all the wonderful things we were doing.”


    Stephens-Martin said that the team was ready to put its losing streak against the Panthers to bed.


    “At the end of the day, we were on our home turf,” Stephens-Martin said. “We had to get that result this week, that was a non-negotiable.”


    With the win, SU improved to 4-5-2 (1-3-0) while Pitt fell to 6-4-1 (0-3-0).

SU celebrating the victory

    Syracuse, now with its first home ACC victory since 2022, sets its sights to a road matchup against Virginia on Saturday. Kickoff for the contest will be at 7 p.m. 



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