Tennis team paces Pitt Olympic sports

Women’s tennis

Last season, the women’s tennis team beat its bitter rival West… Women’s tennis

Last season, the women’s tennis team beat its bitter rival West Virginia for the first time in team history.

Then, when it came down to the wire, the Panthers beat the Mountaineers once again to finish ninth in the Big East Championships.

It was Pitt’s highest placing ever.

And aside from winning for the first time against West Virginia, Pitt won two matches at the championship event for the first time.

Returning for her fourth season is standout Kristy Borza, who owns the school record for career wins. She’ll hope to lead the team to even more firsts in the upcoming season.

Coach George Dieffenbach just finished his 31st season guiding the Panthers.

“We have a strong nucleus, and our top four are coming back,” said Dieffenbach. “This year we’ll have the most challenging schedule in the history of the school, playing more Big East teams than ever (nine). We’ll try to work hard and stay intense and continue to excel.”

Men’s and women’s soccer

The men’s soccer team just couldn’t put it all together last year.

But after finishing its season with a win against Marquette and returning a solid group of young players, there’s hope to improve upon a 3-13-2 record.

Forward E.J. McCormick, one of the key players on the Pitt roster, returns for his senior year after leading the Panthers with four goals last season.

The women’s team recently finished up its spring season with an undefeated record of 4-0-1 and 10 goals scored.

It was the best record the team has had since coach Sue-Moy Chin arrived five years ago.

That might have been expected, since the Pitt ladies lost just three players to graduation.

Ashley Habbel returns for her junior year after scoring six goals in the fall.

She’s joined by senior Jennifer Kritch, who scored five goals on the season.

Swimming and diving

After enjoying great success last season, the Pitt swimming and diving teams look to return for an even bigger season next year.

At the 2008 Big East Championships, the men (10-4) placed third and the women (11-3) ended fourth overall.

Returning for his senior season will be diver Alex Volovetski, the reigning Big East Most Outstanding Diver and Big East champion in both the one- and three-meter diving events.

After placing eighth in the NCAA Championships in March, Volovetski became just the fifth Panther of all time to be named All-American.

Captains Stacie Safritt and Ruth Seiffert, both seniors, continually contributed to last year’s season.

Safritt led with several multiple-win meets against Virginia, Cincinnati and Notre Dame.

Seiffert was named “Performer of the Meet” against West Virginia, placed ninth overall at the Big East Championships in the 200-meter breaststroke and won the 100-breaststroke at the ECAC Championships.

Additional talent can be found in the underclassmen with Andrzej Dubiel and Cookie McIntyre, both of whom garnered second- and fourth-place finishes in their first Big East Championship meets.

Gymnastics

Pitt’s Gymnastics team is returning all but two members of last season’s roster.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, they’re leaving behind two athletes who competed at the NCAA Regional meet during this past season.

Sophomores Molly Moyer and Shannon Vafiadou both had their best events on the floor exercises at their first NCAA Regional meet, registering scores of 9.675 and 9.625.

Next season, senior Anya Chayka, the reigning East Atlantic Gymnastics League champion, will join them in the balance beam event.

Cross Country

Pitt lost five seniors at the end of this past season, leaving the cross country team hobbled. Still, there’s a lot of talent in the underclassmen.

Joshua Christopher, now a sophomore, led the team last year. Christopher came in fourth in his first two meets at the collegiate level and was the first Panther across the finish line at every meet last season.

Christopher finished 71st overall at the NCAA Championship meet.

Anna Yoney, also a sophomore, returns to continue her successful career in running at Pitt.

Last year Yoney turned in several high-scoring races for the Panthers, including a 46th-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

Track and Field

The track and field team loses several key seniors, including Pitt’s two All-Americans, Mike Wray and Sam Bair.

Both took home gold to help the Panthers to a seventh-place finish in the Big East Indoor Championships last season.

The women’s track team earned a fifth-place finish at the Big East Indoor Championship meet thanks to members Janessa Murphy and Mycaiah Clemons, both of whom return this coming year.

Women’s Volleyball

Women’s volleyball started on a tear last season but missed a berth in the Big East Championships after a disappointing second half.

This season, coach Chris Beerman’s team is looking forward to change.

Only two seniors graduated, leaving a core of experienced players returning. Junior Meagan Dooley is fourth on the all-time career solo blocks list and was an All-Big East selection last season.

Along with Dooley, senior Jessica Moses is fourth on the all-time career block assists list.

Wrestling

After losing six seniors this year, four of whom were four-year starters and three of whom were All-Americans, coach Rande Stottlemyer’s wrestling team is going to have a lot of inexperience to make up for.

“We don’t have the superstars, but we buy into the philosophy that you work hard,” said Stottlemyer. “What we lack in experience we’ll make up in wrestling hard and wrestling smart.”

Last season, Keith Gavin made headlines on a national scale when he won the NCAA Championships in the 174-pound weight class.

His undefeated senior season helped Pitt to a 13-4 dual meet record, a 5-1 in-conference record and a second-place finish at the EWL tournament, tying the highest team ranking in Pitt wrestling history.

Stottlemyer will lose another All-American in Matt Kocher, who, last season, became the first Panther to record 100 career tournament wins.

But with up-and-coming stars like heavyweight Zach Sheaffer and Ethan Headlee, the team should be able to take care of itself.

“National champions don’t grow on trees,” said Stottlemyer. “It’ll be tough to do what we did this year, but we have put together a good bunch of guys.”