Deer Lakes grad Michael Sullivan, Pitt men's soccer looking for return trip to College Cup

Winning isn’t always everything, but once you taste it, you can’t help but want more. It’s what drives people to go the extra mile. It’s what pushes athletes to make sacrifices. It’s what motivates a group toward one common goal.

For last year’s Pitt men’s soccer team, the Panthers fell short of their desired championship aspirations.

This year, the Panthers again are hungry to claw for an ACC title berth and a return trip to the College Cup with Deer Lakes product Michael Sullivan right at the heart of it.

Sullivan’s ambitions for propelling Pitt back for a chance at glory stems from his time with Deer Lakes after winning the 2020 WPIAL title during his senior season with the Lancers.

Now that success is fueling Sullivan’s fire.

“No matter where you come from, whether you’re a WPIAL guy or an academy ball guy or coming from overseas, everyone has had a taste of a trophy at some point in their life,” Sullivan said. “Having that hunger to go back and feel one of those trophies again, pick them up and celebrate with the guys, I think that’s the hunger that I’ve got from winning the WPIAL championship. Once you lift a trophy, you always want another one. It’s one of the most addicting things in life, and that’s what makes sports so great, is chasing that feeling.”

Despite a successful season a year ago for the Panthers as they navigated the NCAA Tournament before falling to Indiana in the College Cup, Sullivan said they have a chip on their shoulder.

“No one cares what we did last year,” Sullivan said. “It’s a new year, new season and everyone wants to come in and beat you, so I think we need to take the mentality that every game is its own game. No one is going to give us anything easy just because of what we did last year. Going in with that mentality of we got to prove it to ourselves and everyone else now, is something big for us.”

Pitt’s deep run has been a focal point for the Panthers this season as Sullivan feels they are well-equipped to mirror that formula.

“It helps you put into perspective on all the other work you have to do to get back to that point,” Sullivan said. “Every game during the regular season matters because if you take one game off, all of sudden you can get into a slide. The experience of going there last year showed you everything that has to happen leading up to that point for you to succeed.”

With that experience in mind and one year older, the junior has taken a step this season as a regular starter for the Panthers.

“It’s been great. It’s all contributed to the training environment,” Sullivan said. “It’s great to see everyone fighting for their minutes. It makes it that much more enjoyable when you have training sessions that are as intense if not more intense than games. It helps get you prepared and helps get you ready for the big moments.”

Sullivan has started in various roles this season, including on the right wing, as an attacking midfielder and defensive midfielder. His ability at different positions has allowed him to develop.

“Being able to be versatile and help the guys around me play better and fill in the holes where the team needs me is my biggest strength,” Sullivan said.

While Sullivan owns four career goals for the Panthers, he has yet to score in nine games this season.

Yet he is staying composed and dialing in on bettering his play and team around him.

“Just taking it one step at a time, one game at a time, just kind of focus on each action as it comes,” Sullivan said. “Whether it’s in front of the goal, serving in a ball or finding passes through the midfield. Being able to take pride in every little action that you do defensively, offensively and in transition, staying locked in on those helps me stay focused throughout the game.”

During his sophomore campaign, Sullivan tallied three goals and an assist in 21 games. Two of those goals came in the biggest game of his collegiate career against N.C. State, where he recorded a brace in the opening round of the ACC Tournament.

His first-half marker and overtime tally help push the Panthers to a 4-1 victory, which, ultimately, catapulted Pitt’s deep postseason run.

“That’s up there with one of my favorite games I’ve ever played in,” Sullivan said. “The crowd that night was amazing. It was a huge game for us to make a push to get into the NCAA Tournament. The feeling of watching the stands to erupt like that, it’s hard to replicate.”

Since Sullivan stepped on campus as a freshman, it’s been difficult to miss the passion that surrounds the Pitt men’s soccer program.

It’s been even better for him as he hails from Tarentum, nearly 20 miles from campus, which makes it easy for his family to watch him compete at the collegiate level.

“It’s amazing. My mom gets to come watch me at every home game,” Sullivan said. “Being able to see the community to come out and support me and the community of Pittsburgh. When you play good football like we do, and we get to go out and play in front of fans that really care about the sports in the city, it’s one of the best environments in the country.”

The buzzing atmosphere at Ambrose Urbanic Field was evident throughout last season and has been apparent this year.

Pitt has fed off the home crowd, knocking off No. 9 Wake Forest, 3-0, and No. 19 Denver, 3-1, this season.

“It’s electric,” Sullivan said. “There’s no better feeling than to walk out on a Friday night, we got a game at 7 o’clock, and you’re under the lights in front of 2,000 people at Ambrose, and every single one of them wants to see you put on a show and bring home a W. The atmosphere’s incredible.”

With Pitt again in the mix of the ACC season, Sullivan and the Panthers are searching for another attempt at a championship season.

“We got to start stringing some wins together,” he said. “If we can start putting some wins together through the ACC into the ACC Tournament, I think that bodes really well for us. I think it helps the guys’ confidence as we start playing some good footy and learning from our past experiences and start to apply it into games.”