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Cuba closes in on Pitt mark
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Pitt senior Ashley Cuba (4), a Cardinal Mooney High graduate, needs one point to tie the school’s career scoring record.
By Joe Scalzo
When Ashley Cuba was a freshman at Pitt in 2009, she looked up to a senior named Ashley Habbel, who graduated with the school record for career goals (19).
Did Cuba ever think she might surpass that marks?
“Coming from Cardinal Mooney, I wanted to be at the top of the list,” she said. “I strove for it.”
But?
“But I never actually thought I’d get it,” Cuba said, chuckling.
Cuba broke the goal record last fall with a hat trick against St. John’s and enters tonight’s season-opener against Eastern Michigan needing one point to tie Cande Ruiz’s career points record of 47.
“The point record is not that big of a deal to me,” Cuba said. “We haven’t started the season, so I’m just anxious to get on the field. I just want to get out and play and compete.”
After going 2-13-4 last season, the Panthers replaced nine-year head coach Sue-Moy Chin with Greg Miller, a move that energized the program, Cuba said.
“The fitness is different, the training is different, the environment is completely different,” Cuba said. “He’s embedded into our brain the need to compete for everything we do.”
Miller handed out copies of “Talent Is Never Enough” by John Maxwell and encouraged every player to take on a leadership role, regardless of experience or role.
Cuba said she believes good things are ahead for the program.
“Honestly, I like being the underdog,” she said. “I like challenges and overcoming adversity.
“I think once again we’re ranked last in the conference [in the preseason] but there’s only one way to go from the bottom and that’s up.”
Cuba’s success has extended to the classroom, where she is a double major in anthropology and administration of justice, with a focus on forensics. (She worked with the coroner’s office this summer.) She also has a minor in history.
“I like learning,” Cuba said.
Her dream job is to work for the FBI, an interest that stems from her love of the TV show “Bones” as well as criminal procedural programs like “CSI” and “Law and Order: SVU.” But she also wants to stay close to soccer, whether it’s as a coach or a player.
“I don’t know if I should say this, but I’m hoping to play professionally,” said Cuba, who said she and her teammates watched the U.S. women’s soccer team’s Olympic matches together this summer. “There’s rumors coming around that [a women’s professional] league is coming back and there’s options to go overseas.
“I don’t know what I’d do without this game.”
Cuba’s senior class at Cardinal Mooney won three straight district crowns and advanced to the regional two of those years. She and Katie Griswold (a two-time all-Horizon League honoree at Butler and Mooney’s all-time leading scorer) led a Cardinal team that sent a half-dozen players to the college ranks.
“I think that’s awesome,” Cuba said. “I keep tabs on all of them.”
With 19 games remaining, Cuba knows her college career is nearing its end. When asked how she would liked to be remembered, she thought for a moment, then said, “Well, I hope they would look up to me. I looked up to the previous girl [Habbel] who broke the record, so I hope the future girls have that same competitiveness.”