Pitt soccer coach Jay Vidovich shrugs his shoulders at No. 1 ranking, goes back to work
Jay Vidovich said he doesn’t know how his Pitt soccer players reacted when word reached campus that the team is ranked No. 1 for the first time in the United Soccer Coaches poll.
“I haven’t really brought it up to them at all,” he said.
So, although Pitt men’s soccer is only the third team in university history to be ranked No. 1 — joining football and men’s basketball — it’s not a matter of locker-room discussion, certainly not celebration.
“We kind of figured (Pitt would be No. 1),” Vidovich said, noting his team was No. 2 before beating Virginia, 3-2, in overtime Sunday while No. 1 Wake Forest lost to Clemson.
Why the low-key approach to what can be classified as a historic occurrence?
“Usually, (the poll) is an opinion. No offense to you,” he said to a reporter, “but it’s media-driven. It doesn’t really do anything for you. Right now, I think there has to be asterisks around everything.”
In this period of covid precautions, only 25 men’s teams out of an approximate total of 200 are playing Division I soccer this fall. Vidovich is most proud of Pitt’s standing in the ACC, perhaps the nation’s top conference for men’s soccer.
“What matters to me is we’re No. 1 in the north region of the ACC. That’s a bigger thing for me right now.
“We have a lot of work to do in terms of continuing to work with our culture and improving the roster and the way we do things.”
Pitt soccer used to be stuck in rut, and not just those found on its former pitch, Founders Field, located in Cheswick, 19 miles from Oakland.
When Pitt defeated Syracuse, 2-1, on Sept. 29, 2017, it was the Panthers’ first conference victory since 2011, a 52-match streak that included 45 losses, seven ties and matches against Big East and ACC opponents.
Two years prior to that historic moment, then-athletics director Scott Barnes hired Vidovich, who had taken Wake Forest to 13 NCAA Tournaments in 14 years. It was, inarguably, Barnes’ most enlightened hire in his short time at Pitt.
Today, Pitt soccer plays on Ambrose Urbanic Field, part of the nearly 10-year-old, $29 million Petersen Sports Complex it shares with baseball and softball on the upper campus.
Building a consistently successful program takes time, and Vidovich admits his 4-0 team is “a long way” from completing its reconstruction project. He’s intensified and diversified recruiting and now counts players from 11 countries on his roster.
In a 4-2 victory against Virginia Tech, graduate student Jasper Loeffelsend of Germany and freshman Bertin Jacquesson of France each recorded three assists, tied for second all-time at Pitt. Sophomore Valentin Noel of France leads the team in goals (four).
“I think it’s great,” Vidovich said of bringing different cultures onto campus. “It’s like life. It’s diversified. It’s global, and it makes for an interesting melting pot on the field, in the locker room and in life. Everybody can gain from each other.
“We’ve made a tremendous amount of progress — the quality of the player that joined us, the commitment to playing at the highest level, the culture of learning how to win, playing with intensity and focus, all those things.
“A lot of those things are starting to come together. So, that’s what I’m proud of.”
Notes: Pitt has three regular-season matches remaining this fall, starting Friday at Louisville, followed by the ACC Tournament Nov. 15-22 in Cary, N.C. … Pitt also will play a spring schedule in advance of the NCAA Tournament in May. The field will be reduced from 68 to 34 teams.
Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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