Tennis: Adams leads Panthers to best season in school history

It wasn’t an ordinary year for the Pitt tennis team.

Pitt achieved many firsts in the 2008-09 season, including its first victory in the Big East tournament with a first-round win over Cincinnati. Sophomore Elizabeth Adams also collected a first for the tennis program.

Adams, who notched her and Pitt tennis’ best individual effort to date, became Pitt’s first ever All-Big East team member. The team consists of 14 players voted on by opposing Big East coaches.

“It feels awesome, I was shocked when [Pitt tennis coach] George [Dieffenbach] called me up and congratulated me,” Adams said. “He said, ‘I have one more piece of news for you, you should go on the Big East Web site and check out the all-conference team.’”

Adams was surprised to see her name listed, but the same can’t be said about her coach.

“Any time you look at individual results, that’s what the coaches looked at to vote on the all-conference team,” Dieffenbach said. “Then they look at how those wins contribute to the success of a program. Looking at that, her 22 singles wins and 25 doubles wins absolutely helped our program be successful.”

Adams stepped into the No. 1 singles slot this year when recent graduate Kristy Borza went down with an injury. Adams amassed a 22-6 singles record on the year while facing some of the top competition from other teams.

While Adams and Borza switched spots as the No. 1 and 2 singles players after Borza came back from injury, they teamed up to form the top doubles team for Pitt. On the year, Adams amassed 25 doubles wins, a single-season Pitt record. The wins added to Adams’ stat line but also helped Pitt make even more history last season.

Overall, the Panthers had their best year to date. In addition to the success in the Big East tournament, Pitt finished tied for seventh place — its best finish ever.

The accomplishments this year have Adams’ coach thinking about what she can do in future years.

“If you look at her freshman records, she has a combined win total of 90 wins from singles and doubles,” Dieffenbach said. “So she’s knocking on the door of a prestigious club, the 100-win club in her junior year. Most of those players do it during their senior season, with the exception of Borza, she did it in her junior year.”

The success of Adams has brought recognition to Pitt’s tennis program, which Borza says is on the rise.

“I knew once Pitt got the type of recruit [Adams] was that this program would take the next step,” Borza said.

While Adam’s all-conference mention gave her and her team good press, it was another award she received that struck her as more impressive.

At the end of the season, the Pitt tennis team voted Adams its most valuable player.

“I was really excited about that because I feel like it’s people who know me on a personal level that get to vote on it,” Adams said. “They’re my teammates who know all the work we put in to practice for our matches.”

Dieffenbach attributed Adams’ success to her work ethic.

“She’s certainly an outstanding competitor and works very hard to win,” Dieffenbach said. “She’s worked hard technically on her game to get better at Pitt and she’s a fighter out there within the context of good sportsmanship.”

Adams is quick to attribute her success to learning from good coaches and teammates, but it was mostly Borza that taught her to always keep herself in a game.

“She’s always the one to think you can do it even if you don’t think you can,” Adams said of Borza. “She’s been my partner, so I’ve played doubles with her for two years, she’s always there to support me, from the first match sitting next to her on the bench, to now. I definitely will miss her sitting on the sidelines cheering or on the court next to me.”

Adams will have a new doubles partner next year, as Borza has graduated, but Adams’ goals and leadership role will be greater than last year.

“She’s no doubt a leader for us, not only as a tennis player but as a student,” Dieffenbach said. “She’s very similar to Borza, and playing together was very good for both of them. We’re going to try different partners for her, so it’s going to be interesting, but I expect her to rise to the challenge as the competition gets better.”