PITTSBURGH – Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC announced on Thursday the club had signed defender Arturo Ordoñez to a one-year deal with a club option for 2023 ahead of the 2022 USL Championship season. The signing is pending league and federation approval.

Ordoñez is very familiar with the Steel City, having just completed his college career last fall at Pitt. An All-Atlantic Coast Conference Second Team selection in 2021, Ordoñez was a fixture in the lineup for the Panthers as they reached the NCAA College Cup for the first time, advancing to the national semifinals in the 2020 tournament and national quarterfinals in the 2021 edition.

“Arturo is a physical defender that we know well from his time at Pitt. His competitive nature and ability to play out of the back will only strengthen the overall quality of our defensive group,” said Hounds Head Coach Bob Lilley.

A native of Spain, Ordoñez helped the Panthers to the best two seasons in program history and compiling a 39-17-4 record at Pitt and finished college rated among the top 100 college players in the nation by TopDrawerSoccer.com. In January, he was selected in the Second Round (39th overall) of the 2021 Major League Soccer SuperDraft by Houston Dynamo FC.

The 6-foot-2 center back is signing his first professional deal with the Hounds after spending the past month in camp with Houston. He joins two other former Pitt players — Shane Wiedt and Robby Dambrot — on the Hounds’ roster for 2022.