Tennis: Pitt upsets Georgetown at Big East tournament

When the Pitt women’s tennis team defeated Georgetown on Thursday morning in the first round of the Big East tournament in Florida, the victory was technically an upset, as the 10th-seeded Panthers beat the seventh-seeded Hoyas.

However, no one on the roster was surprised by the result.

There was some reason for concern before the tournament, as Pitt had lost four straight matches heading into its season finale April 10 against Carnegie Mellon. But a 6-1 victory over the Tartans helped propel the team to Tampa Bay with a renewed sense of confidence.

“I think it was really important that the girls played a good match heading into the Big East tournament,” interim head coach Michaela Kissell-Eddins said. “It definitely carried over.”

Later that week, the Panthers received their draw of the Hoyas in the first round. The team was not intimidated by its foe, a team that had defeated Pitt 5-2 in February of this year.

“When we found out we were playing Georgetown, we were actually really excited,” junior Kimmy Borza said. “We all knew that we had the fire to beat them.”

And beat the Hoyas they did.

The Panthers dominated the match, winning by a score of 4-1. The Panthers won every singles match, as Borza, Taylor Washington, Jocelyn Lu, Amanda Wickman, Molly Wickman and Karma Parbhu all picked up victories.

The Hoyas did win two of the three doubles matches — Pitt’s only win being from the team of Borza and Parbhu — which gave Georgetown its only point of the matchup.

Kissell-Eddins was quick to give her opponents credit.

“Even though the score was 4-1, it was an incredibly close match,” she said. “Every game was really close, and I was just proud of the girls. [The match] showed how far the team has come over the semester.”

The win marked Pitt’s second first-round victory in the Big East tournament in program history.

After advancing, the Panthers faced South Florida, the host of the tournament, in the second round.

The Panthers struggled in their Friday match, losing 4-0 against the second-seeded Bulls, who are also ranked 57th in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll. Pitt didn’t win a single match, and the loss sent the Panthers into the consolation bracket, where they vied against the Syracuse Orange for a chance at fifth place.

The Panthers lost to fifth-seeded Syracuse on Saturday, again failing to pick up a victory. The loss ended the Panthers’ season.

Despite the two losses, the team looked at the tournament with a glass-half-full mentality. Amanda Wickman was no exception.

“It was a really cool experience. We all played the best tennis we’ve played all season,” said the sophomore, who finished with a team-best 15-4 singles record.

Pitt now must shift its focus to switching conferences, moving from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference for next season. Widely considered among the top tennis conferences in the nation, the ACC held 10 teams ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association top 75, including the No. 1-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels.

Borza, who will finish her Pitt career next year, understands that there will be an increased level of competition.

“We all know it’s just about the best tennis conference in the country,” she said. “It’s going to be a lot tougher, but we’re ready to compete against some really good teams.”

Kissell-Eddins echoed her player’s sentiments.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work — hard work by the girls, as well as the coaches. Everyone is really excited. We’re going to need our girls to do a lot of work over the summer.”

The team finished the season with a 10-12 record in interim coach Kissell-Eddins’ first season leading the Panthers.