Tennis: Young Panthers look to improve

hile falling short of both a winning season and a berth in the Big East Tournament, the Pitt… hile falling short of both a winning season and a berth in the Big East Tournament, the Pitt women’s tennis team managed to fill the record books with individual achievements. .

The team finished 8-12 (2-7 Big East), with its first losing record in six seasons. The last time the Panthers finished with a losing record was 2005, with a mark of 9-11.The disappointing year has returning players focused on improving their individual games in order to help the team rise in the Big East standings.

“I had a lot of close matches last year that I lost in the third set, and I’m really working on improving certain elements of my game to help me win those,” rising sophomore Kimmy Borza said. “I’m focused on improving my serve and getting as much time in on the court with some teammates as possible.”

The Panthers earned the No. 10 seed in the Big East Championships in 2010 and the No. 8 seed in 2009. But this season, Pitt’s youth and an injury to 2011 graduate Elizabeth Adams contributed to keeping the Panthers from earning one of the 12 seeds in the bracket.

But Pitt returns five of six starters next season, including rising sophomores Borza and Jocelyn Lu, doubles partners who tallied 25 and 32 overall victories, respectively. Adams envisions a bright future for next year’s team as the athletes continue to progress.

“This is still a very young team, there were a lot of freshmen,” Adams said. “They all have a lot of room to grow and develop, and I know they will do very well. I wish them the best of luck going forward.”

Adams assumed her place in the record books by reaching second place in all-time victories among Panther tennis players with 138.

With seven singles wins and 10 in doubles, Adams jumped three former Pitt players in the record books to take hold of second place.

“We did well for our age. We were a very young team,” Adams said. “We didn’t do as well as we hoped, but this year was great for the younger girls. They got a lot of playing time and experience.”

Adams entered the season with 122 career victories, trailing Carlie Smith (135 wins), Annie Davies (126) and Fran Davis (124), whose records she later surpassed, as well as Pitt all-time win record holder Kristy Borza.

Unfortunately for Adams, her season was slightly derailed by multiple injuries, most notably to her shoulder. Although she missed only four matches total, she did not participate in a number of singles contests after playing doubles with her partner Gabrielle Catanzariti.

While Adams was injured, rising junior Catanzariti stepped into the No. 1 spot. She won 21 matches — third on the team — with nine wins in singles and 12 in doubles.

Adams still managed 17 victories overall, which put her four-year total in second place behind that of Kristy Borza, a current assistant coach who still has the most all-time team wins with 176.

The only key loss for the Panthers this season, Adams provided much of the experience on the Pitt squad and her injury accounted for some of the Panthers’ struggles as the relatively inexperienced group attempted to navigate the Big East.

The team was made up of three seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and four freshmen. Seniors Adela Aprodu and Sarah Dieffenbach finished their careers with 44 and four career wins, respectively. Adela played in three singles matches last season, and Dieffenbach played in none.

With 12 wins in singles play and 13 in doubles, Borza posted the second-highest season victory total of anyone on the team. Lu brought back 20 singles wins and 12 in doubles play, to lead the team in each category.

The duo of Borza and Lu combined to post more than one-third of the team’s entire win tally with 57 victories of the team’s total 154.

“It was exciting to rack up some wins this year,” Lu said. “I just focused on going out and playing my best and having fun.”

Despite not making the Big East Championships, the team did manage to hit several memorable milestones. Head coach George Dieffenbach recorded his 300th victory as coach of the Pitt tennis team.

Brittney Russell and Taylor Washington, both rising sophomores, won 14 and 10 matches respectively.

With Borza, Lu, Russell and Washington, Pitt has a core of four young players to rely on over the next three seasons. The group finished with 81 of the team’s 154 victories.

Heading into this season, Lu said she wants to improve her focus.

“I need to … not worry about losing previous games or points, but to really have a handle on the moment,” Lu said. “As a team, we needed to work hard for every point and work on not giving any free points away to our opponents.”

Rising senior Minh Evans and rising junior Karma Parbhu also contributed to the team’s efforts this year, posting win totals of 15 and 18, respectively.