Sept. 29, 2014

@thepittnews

Vol. 105Issue 35

Monday, September 29, 2014Pittnews.com

A devastating defeatA devastating defeatPitt loses to underdog Pitt loses to underdog

page 7page 7

In the spirit of SalkIn the spirit of SalkPitt researchers work on MERS vaccinePitt researchers work on MERS vaccine

page 2page 2

Milkmen and electric carsMilkmen and electric carsHow money is delaying innovationHow money is delaying innovation

page 5page 5

Pittsburgh Great Race held its annual 5K and 10K runs Sunday. Meghan Sunners | Staff Photographer

GOING THE DISTANCE

It’s a tough choice — bioengineer-ing or chemical engineering?

For many Pitt students, select-ing minors or certifi cates can be challenging, especially when con-sidering what potential employers would prefer to see on candidates’ resumés.

Pitt o! ers 46 minors and 12 certifi cates across all schools and includes programs like Jewish stud-ies, public and professional writing and German language studies. Cer-tifi cates are usually 18 to 24 credits, and students can add them to their declared major. When students can declare majors, minors and certifi -

cates varies across programs and depends on students’ grades in their area of study.

Certifi cates and minors o! er both undergraduate and graduate students a way to enhance their degrees. Minors are available only for undergraduate students, while certifi cates are available for both undergraduate and graduate stu-dents, according to Blaine Connor, director of academic programs in Pitt’s College of General Studies.

The goal, according to Ryan Sweeny, an assistant director in the O" ce of Career Development & Placement Assistance , is relevance to their intended career.

“Employers understand the val-ue of relevant experiences,” Sweeny

said in an email. “This can certainly include a certifi cate or a minor, but it is more about relevance and less about what it is called. The title alone isn’t going to impress an employer; it is up to the student to explain what was involved and how it is relevant.”

A choice between a certifi cate or a minor, Connor said, should rest with each student’s interests.

“It is hard to generalize about whether a given certifi cate [or mi-nor] would be better for a student,” Connor said in an email. “Some-times the choice just comes down to which is available in the subject of interest, a minor or a certifi cate

Achieving your goals: Certifi cates and minors can help

Emily Ahlin Staff Writer

Certificates 4

2 September 29, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

NEWS

Pitt researchers developed a new vac-cine that protects mice, and, hopefully, camels, against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, a viral respiratory illness spreading across the Middle East.

With enough funding, researchers hope to eventually fi nd a vaccine to pro-tect humans from the disease.

“In May 2013, more and more cases started happening in the Middle East, so we decided to design and manufacture this vaccine,” said Andrea Gambotto, an associate professor in Pitt’s Department of Surgery and senior author of the study.

MERS, which can infect humans and animals, causes “severe acute respiratory illness” including shortness of breath, cough and fever, according to the Cen-

ters for Disease Control and Prevention. About 30 percent of those with confi rmed cases of MERS have died since the disease was fi rst discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

The team, made up of researchers from Pitt, the Netherlands, Saudi Ara-bia and Qatar, developed the vaccine in summer 2013.

“To make a vaccine is easy,” Gambot-to said. “To make a real vaccine done through extensive testing is very com-plicated.”

Gambotto’s lab immunized a few mice and did some initial evaluation of the re-sponse in Pittsburgh. Gambotto then sent the sera samples from the immunized mice to Bart Haagmans’ lab in the Neth-erlands, where researchers performed immunological evaluations of the vaccine. They studied the activity against the virus

and how well the vaccine neutralized it.Subsequent studies looked for further

evidence that scientists could use this vaccine to immunize camels, which sci-entists believe are the primary carriers of the disease in the Middle East. The researchers wanted to demonstrate that camels do not have antibodies to neutral-ize the virus on their own and that the vaccine would be able to infect camels’ cells without resistance.

“Therefore, future experiments in dromedary [Arabian or Indian] camels to test the immunogenicity and protective e! cacy of these candidate vaccines are envisaged,” Haagmans said.

Gambotto’s Dutch collaborators were the fi rst to show that a human and camel carried the same MERS virus .

“We are almost sure camels have an in-volvement in the disease,” Gambotto said.

However, Gambotto says it’s very un-likely that the camel is the only animal that is infected.

“There probably is another animal that will close the circle,” Gambotto said. “Usually, in this kind of disease, you have three animals. The third animal is prob-ably something that lives in close quarters with camels.”

Until there is an epidemic outbreak, Gambotto said, the best approach now is to immunize animals.

“The camel seems to be one of the links, so we should immunize the camel,” Gambotto said. “There could be another animal involved, but if you stop this ping-pong between the two animals, then you probably stop the disease.”

Pitt researchers develop vaccine to fi ght respiratory virusAnjana Murali

Staff Writer

Vaccine 3

3September 29, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Gambotto compared MERS to Lyme Disease, through which the virus bounces between deer, ticks and humans.

Based on the team’s own work and what is known from other coronaviruses, vaccine candidates for MERS-CoV may need to induce antibodies to neutralize the virus at mucosal surfaces, or orifi ces, according to Haagmans.

“The approach taken by Andrea Gam-botto may likely be successful, as the vac-cine may be able to comply with both requirements,” Haagmans said.

The vaccine targets one antigen, an antibody generator, on the surface of the MERS virus because coronaviruses tend to be more stable on their surface antigens, Gambotto said. Nobody knows, though, if this virus will become more ag-gressive and evolve its antigenic profi le. For now, the vaccine primes the immune system to detect the antigen and fi ght

the virus.One limitation of this vaccine tech-

nology in humans is their preexisting immunity to it. Because the vaccine de-veloped is a hybrid, it contains strains from multiple viruses including SARS, MERS, infl uenza and Ebola. Since humans have an immunity to some of the viruses included in the vaccine, antibodies from a preformed immunity will neutralize the virus and render it ine! ective.

Pitt’s Department of Surgery funded the beginning stages of the project.

“We fi nished [the] initial phase of evaluation , which is pretty preliminary but is also very promising,” Gambotto said. “The reality is that without money, you don’t go anywhere.”

The researchers are currently seek-ing more funding and a lab capable of handling work with camels.

“Although this vaccine technology is not very innovative, based on results ob-tained previously with similar vaccines,

VACCINEFROM PAGE 2

E S T A B L I S H E D 1 9 1 0

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Vaccine 4


— i.e., there is no choice.”Morgan Lindenmuth is a sophomore psy-

chology major and plans to minor in neurosci-ence. While Lindenmuth hasn’t started her neuroscience coursework yet, she is “looking forward to psychology applications” in neuro-science and said having the minor would give her “more of a science background.”

“I thought it would be helpful if I had some neuroscience background,” Lindenmuth said. “[There’s a] large overlap between neurosci-ence and psychology.”

When it comes to making the choice be-tween minors or certifi cates, Sweeny said it depends on relevance to career goals. This can come in many forms, and both don’t al-ways have to fall under one general subject, like science.

One example might be a chemistry major who can’t decide whether to get a certifi cate in global studies or conceptual foundations of medicine.

“If a chemistry major wanted to work for an international pharmaceutical company

overseas, then I believe an employer would see value and relevance in them getting a global studies certifi cate,” Sweeny said. “However, if that same student is planning on apply-ing to medical school, then the conceptual foundations of medicine certifi cate would be more relevant.”

Lisa Beilman is a sophomore nutrition and dietetics major and said she’s consider-ing a Spanish minor to satisfy an interest and enhance career opportunities.

“It’s a really good asset to have, to be bi-lingual,” Beilman said, adding that it would “[make her] available to more patients.”

Beilman also said she was interested in languages and that, with the Spanish minor, she had “a chance to study abroad.”

But there is more to consider than just certifi cates and minors when it comes to earn-ing potential, according to Sweeny.

“Because a minor or certifi cate is one small piece in a bigger, overall picture of a student’s resumé, I think it is hard to say that it increases earning potential,” Sweeny said.

Many factors contribute to earning po-tential, Sweeny said, including relevant ex-periences, major, part-time jobs, volunteer experiences and campus involvement..

“It is the combination of all those factors,” Sweeny said.

Sometimes, even indirect links can be helpful.

“Sometimes [a certifi cate or minor] does not have a direct link to the job, but that cre-dential might catch the eye of a person review-ing a resumé who had a similar interest, just as sharing an alma mater might,” Connor said.

Sweeny also suggested that students pur-sue minors or certifi cates that interest them.

“We also encourage students to pursue a minor or certifi cate if it is in an area that they really enjoy,” Sweeny said. “It may not have signifi cant benefi ts when it come to applying for a job or applying to graduate school, but if it is a topic that the student really enjoys, it is still worth the e! ort.”

But whether or not a certifi cate or minor may be valuable comes back to relevance to the future.

“The minor or certifi cate is a great ad-dition to a resumé if it is relevant, and we strongly believe that the more relevant items students have on their resumé, the more suc-cessful they will be in pursuing full-time work or graduate/professional school,” Sweeny said.

CERTIFICATESFROM PAGE 1

[it] may point to a successful future ap-plication,” Haagmans said.

Scientifi c, often medical, research like this is often a factor that continues to draw pre-med students to Pitt.

“The reason I wanted to come here was because of UPMC and all of the research that goes on there,” said Ellie Gaylord, a freshman pre-med student. “I knew that my professors would be doing research and that I’d be able to get hands-on ex-perience here.”

When Kaitlyn Loh initially applied to schools, she never really considered Pitt, but changed her mind because of the sci-entifi c research at the University.

“I think research projects like this one show that Pitt is very underestimated sometimes, but a very smart and capable research institute that probably deserves more recognition than it gets,” Loh, also a freshman pre-med student, said. “I feel like people are under-informed about Pitt’s abilities.”

VACCINEFROM PAGE 3

T P NS U DO K U

Today’s di! culty level: Very HardPuzzles by Dailysodoku.com


OPINIONS

COLUMNCOLUMN

America likes to pride itself on innova-tion. If you have a good, new idea, you have the right to try to realize it and profit from it — as demonstrated by the hit show “Shark Tank.”

However, in reality, this idea is ex-tremely complicated. Traditional busi-

ness interests tend to obstruct these ideas, because, after all, a new and bet-ter idea will always put some people out of business. Just like how the refrig-erator made milkmen obsolete, Tesla seemingly poses a similar threat. Not to milk, obviously, but to the way cars are sold.

Elon Musk knows this all too well. Musk is a co-founder of SpaceX, Paypal

and SolarCity, which are all successful and innovative enterprises. His crown jewel, though, just might be Tesla Mo-tors, the electric car company.

Tesla has been successful despite the derision of market experts, who at-tacked both Tesla’s soaring stock price and the general idea of mass-marketing electric cars.

It’s true that Tesla’s stock is too high

from speculation — Musk himself said this — and that the company still hasn’t created an electric Model-T available to any level of income. But, the company continues to trend upwards — so much that it recently reached an agreement with the state of Nevada to open a new factory, which will double the world’s

Tesla troubles: Progress demands an open marketplaceStephen Caruso

Columnist

Tesla 6

Corporate model undermines goals of higher educationEDITORIALEDITORIAL

Last week marked Frank Brogan’s one-year anniversary as chancellor of Pennsylva-nia’s State System of Higher Education.

On looking back on his fi rst year in o! ce, Brogan said, “We are not the same university system we used to be.”

He’s spot on — we aren’t the same, and a lot of this change has to do with Brogan’s e" orts in the past year. But that’s not what is at debate here. Rather, what is controversial is how, exactly, our state’s university system has changed and con-tinues to change.

What hasn’t changed is state funding for education — it’s still not stellar, as any Tom Wolf attack ad will tell you. But com-ing into o! ce a year ago, while state fund-ing for education was what Brogan called “the elephant in the room,” retrenchment for state universities was not necessarily considered a bad thing. In fact, according to Brogan, it helped the state university system evolve for the better.

Rather, the change Brogan has pursued while in o! ce has been to make state uni-versities more independent from state au-thorities. The goal is to reduce regulations the state bureaucracy has traditionally placed on universities, thus making them more fl exible to compete in the market.

For instance, because of the newfound emphasis on fl exibility, Edinboro Univer-sity has lowered its tuition price for out-

of-state students to within a few hundred dollars of what in-state students pay, at $4,937.20 for out-of-state students . Now, Edinboro is better able to compete with other state universities that already lower their rates for Pennsylvanians.

While more fl exibility may provide ben-efi ts for universities like Edinboro, there is a fundamental problem with encouraging competition among universities by giving them more autonomy : Universities should not have to act like corporations.

By decreasing funding and leaving state universities to a match of survival of the fi ttest, the state does just that, which poses many long-term problems for students.

For example, the current system has al-lowed universities more control regarding curriculum. With a lack of funding from the state, universities have naturally cho-sen to support more profi table areas of study. There has and continues to be a shift in campus resources toward STEM majors and away from humanities. STEM — fi elds of science, technology, engineer-ing and math — o" ers higher returns of investment via research grants and stu-dent demand.

Pitt has been no stranger to this phe-nomenon, either. On Jan. 30, Provost Patricia Beeson accepted proposals to eliminate the religious studies program and continue the suspension of admissions

to Pitt’s graduate programs for German and classics.

“As good stewards of the resources entrusted to us, we are responsible for continuously evaluating the e! ciency and e" ectiveness of our programs,” Beeson said.

This makes sense in a market setting. But in an institution of higher learning, where students should gain exposure to ideas they wouldn’t have otherwise ex-perienced, we’re not so sure.

Using resources e" ectively and e! -ciently in this competitive market of high-er education has triggered an increase in spending on administration. More focus on administration equates to a better busi-ness model and, thus, has increased focus on marketing and attracting investment, something humanities professors simply cannot do.

In fact, from 1998 to 2008, private colleges increased spending 22 percent on curriculum, while increasing spending on administration by 36 percent, accord-ing to a study published by the Delta Cost Project in 2010. Consequently, the number of administrative sta" ers has risen by 240 percent over the past 40 years, while the instructor-to-student ratio has remained fairly constant, at about 15 or 16 students per instructor.

As funding dropped, and the competi-

tive edge sharpened, universities have fo-cused less on being universities and more on being businesses, as the trends show .

There remains an obvious solution, one that is so overused and overstated, it is al-most a cliché at this point: The state needs to increase education funding. Period.

As any government o! cial will tell you, this is much easier said than done. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Rather than encourage wasteful spend-ing, the state needs to create more e! -cient budgets that take advantage of the resources we have and transfer the money made from them into education. For in-stance, the state can use profi ts made from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board for education, rather than marketing new liquors. Or, Pennsylvania can charge a sev-erance tax on the extraction of natural gas from shale, like many other states currently do. And, perhaps most contro-versial, yet most e" ective, the state can increase income tax on those who make more than $100,000 a year — after all, higher education is technically a public service, so those who utilize it should, ideally, pay their fair share.

The state doesn’t need to tell universi-ties to compete with each other because it has the resources to help them. It’s just a matter of using them e! ciently and get-ting its priorities straight.


output of the unique batteries used in Tesla vehicles.

Despite the positive trends , one problem continues to stand in Tesla’s way — one that is neither technical nor economical, but governmental.

Unfortunately for Tesla, most states have laws barring the franchising of car dealerships by the parent car producer. Thus, independently-owned dealer-ships must make sales to customers. In Ohio, for instance, car dealership lobbyists argue that Tesla’s selling of vehicles directly to customers violates these laws. Instead, they advocate that Tesla should own showrooms to present its vehicles but should not help custom-ers order a car from a Tesla factory. The idea is to push sales to the existing car dealerships.

Why is this a problem? Dealerships make most of their money from parts and services, rather than on the car sales themselves. Tesla’s cars, or any

electric car for that matter, are much simpler machines. There are no oil changes, spark plugs or timing belts, thus no extra profit for the dealerships. So, the dealerships don’t have incen-tives to sell electric vehicles.

Pennsylvania, for its part, has been more progressive and has allowed Tesla to open five stores in the state to sell its vehicles, which is a good start. But in other states to recently allow Tesla stores, like New Jersey and Washing-ton, state legislatures have granted only the company an exception. This means future competitors who aren’t already present in the market, like Ford or Toyota, are out of luck, unless they want to engage in a whole new legal battle, for which most up-and-coming companies do not have the resources.

It is true that Tesla’s short-term victories will boost sales, allowing the company to profit from innovation and encourage further growth. This will create jobs, as it is already doing in Nevada, and allow for progress towards a green car for all.

On a larger scale, though, further

opening of the sales process will let any new company try to sell its car. As it is now, electric cars, while cutting down on the creation of smog, are only carbon neutral. The electricity they use has to come from somewhere, and it will likely be from burning fossil fuels. To boot, 66 percent of electricity in America comes from coal and natural gas.

The laws must leave the market open to all competitors. Whoever can make the first completely green vehicle, not reliant on our current “dirty” power grid, such as a solar or hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, deserves the right to get it to the public as soon as possible.

Now, we come back to the milkmen. To make this kind of competition pos-sible, we need to reduce the power of auto dealers. Even Tesla could go under eventually if someone develops a new and better idea. But this constant cycle of creative destruction, as economist Joseph Schumpeter called it, is what makes a free market so powerful. To get in the way only forestalls the inevitable, hurting the public in the process.

Email Stephen at [email protected].

CARUSOFROM PAGE 5


SPORTS

Three weeks ago, Pitt football secured its win over Boston College with a late interception.

After safety Terrish Webb intercepted the pass, he began to run out of the end zone before hitting the ground to avoid an onrushing opponent.

Teammate Ray Vinopal, a senior cap-tain, then came over and, in an exchange picked up by an ESPN fi eld-level micro-phone, asked the sophomore what he was doing.

It was a good question, because up 10 points with 13 seconds left, there was no reason to go anywhere but down. Webb had had a mental lapse.

Following Saturday’s ba! ing display against Akron, which ended 21-10 in favor of the Zips, it’s fair to ask the Panthers the same question regarding their nightmarish performance.

Pitt (3-2, 1-0 ACC) never looked better

than its lesser opposition from the MAC and never appeared to play with an urgen-cy appropriate to the disparity in points.

Head coach Paul Chryst said after the game that Akron didn’t surprise his team.

“There wasn’t much that they showed us that we hadn’t prepared for,” Chryst said.

But after failing against a team that lost its previous two games by an average of 24.5 points, the question still remains and, perhaps, becomes more intriguing.

What were the Panthers doing?Sophomore running back James Con-

ner ran fewer than 100 yards for the fi rst time this season.

Quarterback Chad Voytik threw two in-terceptions, the second of which resulted in a touchdown before its nullifi cation due to an o" sides penalty.

“O" ensively, we were stagnant,” Chryst said.

More important were the seven penal-

Mental lapses Pitt!s detriment in 21-10 loss to Akron Jasper Wilson

Senior Staff Writer

COLUMNCOLUMN

Pitt captain Nicholas Grigsby was penalized twice in Pitt’s loss to the Zips. Zach Schaffer | Senior Staff Photographer

WOMEN’S SOCCERWOMEN’S SOCCER

Pitt head coach Greg Miller and his Pan-thers can go to sleep tonight knowing they accomplished something that no other Pitt women’s soccer team has done in the past.

Pitt capped o" its two-game road stint on Sunday with a 1-0 victory over the Syracuse Orange at SU Soccer Stadium, giving the program its fi rst-ever ACC win and improv-ing their overall record to 5-6-0.

The Panthers entered Sunday’s ACC contest on a four-game losing streak and a winless record in conference play dating back to the 2013 season, when they fi nished the year losing all 13 of their ACC matchups. Now, with Sunday’s win, not only do the Panthers have their fi rst conference win, but they have also eclipsed their overall win

total from last season. Miller has worked hard to turn the pro-

gram around, and Sunday’s victory captured his commitment paying o" .

“I feel a little bit of relief, a little bit of ex-citement,” Miller said. “I’m just really proud of this team. They’re young and still trying to fi nd their way, but we had a great weekend. We didn’t play as well [Sunday] as we did Thursday, but we were able to get the win, and that feels pretty darn good.”

Sophomore co-captain and midfi elder Siobhan McDonough was a part of this team through its struggles last season and knows what it feels like to lose. But the takeaway was just the opposite on Sunday.

“It feels great,” McDonough said. “The past couple of games we had been playing much better, and I knew it was just a matter of time before our fi rst win in the ACC, so I

am very excited.”Late in the second half, shortly after the

referee called back a Pitt goal when red-shirt senior forward Alex Charlebois was caught o" side, freshman forward Taylor Pryce drew a foul in the middle of the box o" of a corner kick, which lead to a penalty kick opportunity.

Miller elected to have junior midfi elder and forward Roosa Arvas take the kick, and she promptly booted it into the back of the net for a score in the 84th minute. With the goal, Arvas increased her goal total this season to seven, accompanying her team-leading 15 points , 30 shots and 17 shots on goal. She leads the Panthers in every o" en-sive category.

Senior co-captain and defenseman Jackie Poucel, who has lead the young team all sea-son, was there to support Arvas as the pres-

sure built up with the penalty kick.“In my mind, I knew it was going in,”

Poucel said. “I had full confi dence in Roosa. It was just an awesome feeling.”

Miller was confi dent in Arvas as well, citing her experience as being very valuable to the team.

“[Roosa] has been great, she’s won a lot of halves for us,” Miller said. “She seems to be our most able player when we need goals the most. When she’s confi dent and playing well, good things happen, whether she’s set-ting other people up or other people set her up, she’s able to capitalize.”

The game’s outcome was far from ex-pected based on the fi rst half of play. The Panthers came out and looked fatigued early, perhaps resulting from the long weekend

Panthers secure fi rst-ever ACC win thanks to Arvas goalKevin Wheeler

Staff Writer

Football 9

Soccer 10


ACROSS1 Most unwavering

10 “Forget about it!”15 Canine issue16 Previously in

print?17 Standing guard18 Pronged19 __ roast20 Grandstand

group22 Celebrated25 “Danny and the

Dinosaur” authorHoff

26 Marathon rtes.,perhaps

30 Botched (up)32 Christmas

catalog item34 Restaurant

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assumingdifferent forms

39 Like originalMatchbox cars

40 Got a chuckleout of

41 Rickety42 Ruman of

“Stalag 17”43 Krona : öre ::

ruble : __45 __ perpetua:

Idaho’s motto46 2008

Soderberghbiopic

48 Shooting ratios50 Immobilize, as

with fear52 First NFL Man of

the Year Awardrecipient (1970)

57 Savannahsighting

58 Chukka bootfeature

61 Actress Kemperof “The Office”

62 Small cookers63 Enjoyed64 Stretch, say

DOWN1 Pack2 Mood indicator

3 Something to fill4 “Put __ my tab”5 Loft user6 “Sit”7 Car starter?8 Moo __ pork9 Game for

shapeshifters?10 Defense gp.11 Passing

thoughts?12 Espionage

strategiesinvolvingseduction

13 Goes too far14 Forms a union21 Person with a

warped mind, inslang

23 Morning’s end24 Orbit, for one26 Oscars org.27 Food that’s

Italian for “littleworms”

28 “Time to dosomething aboutthis”

29 Former fliers31 One who acts33 “... __ come”

35 Really smell37 Frozen treat39 Like New York’s

Chrysler Building41 Case worker:

Abbr.44 Inspires, with “up”47 Orange Muppet49 Matt who scored

the Jets’ onlytouchdown inSuper Bowl III

50 Spa option51 Named53 World Golf

Hall of FamerAoki

54 Movie pooch55 Draft choices56 Zaire’s

Mobutu __ Seko

59 Break down60 Flight stat

Friday’s Puzzle SolvedBy Tom Heilman 10/11/14

©2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 10/11/14

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VOLLEYBALLVOLLEYBALL

The Fitzgerald Field House continues to be a haven for Pitt success, as the team ex-tended its winning streak to eight Sunday afternoon against Boston College.

The Panthers defeated the Eagles 25-22, 25-18 and 25-11.

“They were a really solid team. We watched a lot of fi lm on them, and we knew they were going to be good, so it was awe-some to come out and sweep them,” senior setter Lindsey Zitzke said.

Senior outside hitter Jessica Wynn agreed and said the win was a “confi dence boost.”

Pitt (13-1, 1-0) not only beat its 11th opponent of the season in straight sets but won its fi rst ACC conference match, too. The Panthers seem to have Boston College’s number with the overall series record reading 19-1, as the team swept BC last season in conference play with a

3-0 and 3-2 win.“It feels great. It feels really good, espe-

cially knowing that was a really good vol-leyball team,” Pitt head coach Dan Fisher said. “They beat Louisville a couple days ago. It was very important to start o! with a win in conference play.”

Serving was an issue for Pitt in its last match, but that was not the case Sunday. Both setters for the Panthers — Zitzke and junior Jenna Jacobson — had two aces, and Wynn had one. With her second ace, Zitzke reached 152 for her career , tying the program record for most aces.

“We defi nitely served better tonight,” Fisher said. “It defi nitely infl uenced the game, especially the second set. I didn’t think we played particularly well, but we served so tough, that was the di! erence. If not, they might have taken that [set].”

Wynn led the team in kills with 19, while senior libero Delaney Clesen re-corded 19 digs. Defensively, Pitt outdid the Eagles (6-7, 1-1 ACC) in digs and blocks.

The Panthers also held two of BC’s top players to a negative hitting percentage. Outside hitters Katty Workman and Sol Calvete had less-than-average games. Due to Pitt’s defensive success, the Eagles’s were forced to rely on right side Julia Topor, who fi nished the match hitting .417 with 18 kills.

“They rely a lot on their outside hitters, so we focused on that a lot,” Wynn said. “But they defi nitely have a lot of options. [Topor] had a really good game. She picked up the slack for the outside hitters.”

Fisher agreed that the Panthers couldn’t stop Topor.

“We couldn’t do anything against her tonight,” the second-year head coach said. “It was a big o! ensive night for her.”

Middle hitter Amanda Orchard con-tinued her successful season with another match where she hit above .400. The ju-nior hit .583 with eight kills and two and a half blocks.

After exchanging the fi rst two points of

set one, Pitt went on a fi ve-point streak, thanks to kills by Wynn and opposite Kate Yeazel, and three attack errors by BC.

The Panthers held a comfortable lead against the Eagles throughout the set until late, when they ran into trouble. With the score reading 17-11, BC soared back into the game. Back-to-back attack errors on the Panthers, as well as three aces by the Eagles’ setter Kellie Barnum, brought BC within one.

Despite a Pitt timeout, the Eagles tied the set at 20. But the Panthers’ luck changed when BC’s top hitter, Workman, had two attack errors in a row. Up 22-20, kills from Wynn and Orchard paved the way for the set win.

“The biggest thing I am pleased with as a team is that we kept both outside hitters to a negative hitting percentage,” Fisher said. “I don’t know if we have ever done that, but what I do know is that if you do

Pitt defeats Boston College, wins fi rst ACC game of yearCaitlin Hinsey

Staff Writer

Volleyball 10


ties, for a combined 55 yards.“I thought we’d play cleaner,” Chryst

said.Part of playing cleaner is avoiding pen-

alties. Pitt didn’t do that.The most glaring example was a 10-

yard holding call on left guard Dorian Johnson. The hold erased a Voytik touch-down to Tyler Boyd in the third quarter, with Pitt down seven.

“That was disheartening, it really was,” Voytik said. “You celebrate after a touch-down, and then you fi nd out that you have to play another play.“

However, Chris Blewitt made a 34-yard fi eld goal to salvage something positive from the drive. But the momentum fi rm-ly remained with the Zips until the fi nal whistle, whose only win before this week-end came against Howard, a 1-4 Football Subdivision team.

Before that, with the second quarter coming to a close, an o! side penalty by ju-nior defensive tackle Darryl Render turned

a third-and-nine into a third-and-four, which Akron converted.

The mistake didn’t result in any points, but Akron drove to the Pitt 30-yard line before a David Durham sack pushed the o! ense out of fi eld goal range.

Infractions come down to discipline, something Pitt is unable to maintain for stretches. The penalty problem is noth-ing new.

Coming into the week fi ve matchup, Pitt tied for 55th among FBS schools in penalties per game with six, 77th in fewest total penalties with 24, 85th in fewest total penalty yards with 220 and 68th in fewest penalty yards per game with 55.

After Akron, Pitt improved one spot in total penalty yards (275) and moved up to 63 in penalty yards per game (55). It could have gone the other way if not for an unsportsmanlike conduct fl ag on Shakir Soto in the fourth quarter that was o! set, meaning no yards. Meanwhile, Pitt dropped seven spots to 62 in penalties per game (6.2) and dropped two spots to 79th in fewest total penalties (31).

Pitt’s movement in these rankings comes while many of the other teams,

both behind and ahead of Pitt, have only played four games to the Panthers’ fi ve.

With next Saturday’s game at Virginia marking the midpoint of the regular sea-son, shouldn’t the group have addressed this issue by now?

The other issues facing this team — of which there are many — deserve attention too, sure, but penalties are basic.

Captains T.J. Clemmings, a redshirt senior, and Nicholas Grigsby, a redshirt junior, committed three of the penalties, totaling 25 yards.

Vinopal, who had a fi rst-quarter in-terception in the end zone that kept the visitors from taking an early lead, said the ongoing penalty problem comes down to a lack of discipline and focus.

“It’s easy to get out of the moment. Coach Chryst always says ‘win the now, be concerned with the now’,” Vinopal said. “In a close game, you can’t a! ord to be losing yards and fi rst downs [on penalties] and expect to win.”

Saturday proved as much, and last week’s contest against Iowa did, too. Pitt had eight for 80 yards then —its most of the season.

Redshirt senior Manasseh Garner has committed several of the infractions this year, which he acknowledged.

“We get a big 15-yard run, we can’t have a 10-yard penalty to bring it back,” Garner said. “I take that upon myself.”

What’s it going to take to improve in this area of play?

“Focus. Gotta focus,” he said. “During the week, I feel like we gotta focus more, and just own that. We can’t let little things like false starts just go o! and just dismiss it. We gotta focus during the week because it transitions into the game. “

If this team can’t fi gure out how to do so, the Panthers won’t be able to succeed.

FOOTBALLFROM PAGE 7


that, it’s hard for the other team to beat you. So there was a big e! ort against their left side hitters.”

Pitt’s struggles continued into the sec-ond set, as the Panthers dropped the fi rst three points before a kill by Yeazel put the team on the board. Pitt would remain trailing or tied for the fi rst half of the set before taking o! . The largest lead for the Panthers would be 17-11, with a handful of points coming from BC errors.

Pitt sealed the victory in set two thanks to a service ace by Jacobson, along with kills by Wynn, Orchard and outside hitter Mariah Bell, who came in for sophomore outside hitter Maria Genitsaridi.

Set three was the best set of the match for the Panthers. The team jumped out to a 6-2 lead, with a Genitsaridi kill start-ing an early run. The Panthers added to their lead with kills by Wynn, Orchard

and middle blocker Jenna Potts, upping the score to 11-5.

The Eagles were unable to hold o! Pitt as Wynn, Casey Durham and Orchard had back-to-back kills while Jacobson recorded a second ace to bring her team to a 22-11 lead. Wynn added a kill of her own, and the fi nal two points of the set, and ultimately the match, were on two attack errors by the Eagles.

“I am proud of the way we took care of the things that we were keying on, and it’s exciting to start the ACC o! with a win,” Wynn said.

The Panthers hope to have continued success in their second season in the ACC. In the conference, Pitt currently ranks fi rst in assists, aces and kills per set with 14.13, 1.76 and 14.87, respectively, while sitting second in digs and both opponent and team hitting percentages. The Panthers average 15.37 digs with opponents hitting .129 while the team hits .273.

Pitt’s next match is Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

VOLLEYBALLFROM PAGE 8

away from home, since Pitt departed from Pittsburgh last Wednesday morning. But they responded with resilience after getting out of the fi rst half knotted at zero with the Orange.

“[The players] were all tired, or mentally tired, as a result of being physically tired, and they were just able to dig a little bit deeper,” Miller said. “They just found a way, and they did it in a way that they didn’t panic. Slowly but surely, with every tackle, with every pass, with every ball cleared out, we were able to gain some confi dence and put more pres-sure on [Syracuse]. Eventually, they were rewarded.”

The Panthers’ ability to respond to the pressure also showed with their performance against Boston College last Thursday. It was a game that they played extremely well, and, fi nally, the Panthers seem to play with some confi dence on the fi eld.

“The BC game was a turning point for our team,” McDonough said. “Collectively, we had a lot more fi ght than in past ACC games, like last year. We had grown our confi dence, and it showed.”

Poucel would agree, but she has consis-tently been encouraging her teammates to believe in themselves. Her wish was fi nally

granted this weekend.“We’ve fi nally started to click, and now

we have some confi dence back,” Poucel said. “We know that we are perfectly capable of competing with these [ACC] teams and win-ning.”

All seems well in Pitt women’s soccer world at the moment, but the Panthers will be back to work tomorrow, as they shift their focus to North Carolina State, who awaits them for a match in Raleigh, N.C., on Sat-urday.

Pitt is tenacious right now, a feeling it hopes to maintain as the weekend approach-es. It’s been an up and down ride for the Pan-thers so far this season, with the Syracuse win being their peak, but Miller knows it is time to make that e! ort stick.

“We want to get another win; we want to keep building,” Miller said. “Now that we have some confi dence, we want to continue to get better and improve and see if we can do some more damage in the league. By no means are we going to sit on this win and sit back for the rest of the season and say, ‘we won one game.’ We will concentrate all of our e! orts on North Carolina State, and hopefully we can go down there and make something happen.”

Pitt will visit the North Carolina State Wolfpack this Saturday, Oct. 4, with a kicko! set for 7:00 p.m.

SOCCERFROM PAGE 7

Sept. 29, 2014

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