Pitt tennis struggles on road, loses first match

Sunny California and a singles player’s return home weren’t enough to deliver two wins for… Sunny California and a singles player’s return home weren’t enough to deliver two wins for Pitt tennis the past two weekends.

Departing from Pittsburgh for a four-day training trip in Riverside, Calif., over spring break, the Panthers, toting a previously untarnished 4-0 record, took on California-Riverside on March 8.

The match started off a bit rocky, with the first two Pitt doubles teams of Leah Friedman and Kristy Borza and Annie Davies and Christie D’achille succumbing to their west coast counterparts.

Pitt players Carlie Smith and Sabrina Visram could not do enough to collect the doubles team point for the match, although they played strong sets for an 8-1 victory.

“The doubles point ultimately cost us the match,” Pitt head coach George Dieffenbach said.

Borza, Friedman and Smith, the first through third singles players, respectively, floundered when their individual turns to play rolled around.

Borza took one set versus Cal-Riverside’s Erynne Oki, but ultimately lost the point with two losing sets of 5-7 and 2-6.

Friedman and Smith followed the trend, losing matches 6-2, 6-3 and 6-1, 6-1 to Cal-Riverside, respectively.

Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-spot players Visram, Davies and D’achille managed to pull up Pitt’s score, fighting back for three-straight singles wins to conclude the match. Visram won in three sets at 3-6, 6-4 and 6-3, taking down Yasaman Sakhakorn.

Davies took a close 7-6 set and followed it up with 6-2 to take Pitt’s second team point.

D’achille finished the match strong with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Eri Yoshimoto.

Despite the efforts at the end of the match, Pitt missed the overall win by one point, losing 4-3 to place them at 4-1 on the season.

“It was very close, we fought hard,” Dieffenbach said. “They were a quality Division I opponent -all the Division I teams in California are quality teams.”

Last Friday’s away match at WVU was one for the Pitt record books. It was the closest match in the history of the program.

Pitt began the afternoon in Morgantown, losing the doubles point after three doubles matches.

The first doubles team to take on the Mountaineers – Borza and Friedman – suffered a nail-biting 8-6 loss to West Virginia’s Natalia Prinz and Stacey Percival.

According to Dieffenbach, Borza bounced back from the close defeat by playing “the greatest match of her career.”

She got her revenge against Prinz in the No. 1 singles match, swinging her way to two perfect sets of 6-0.

Friedman and Smith, the next two singles players, were not able to hold off their Mountaineer opponents, and Friedman’s match against Percival ended with one set to her name, 6-4, and two dropped to Percival, 0-6 and 1-6.

Visram and D’achille then propelled Pitt to a tie.

Visram, a freshman, topped WVU’s Stephanie LaFortune in the No. 4 spot with scores of 6-3 and 7-5, catapulting her singles record to 6-0.

D’achille then solidified Borza and Visram’s wins with her own 6-3, 6-2 outcome against LaFortune, equalizing the two teams at 3.

“It was a valiant effort,” Dieffenbach said. “[D’achille] set the stage for Davies, and Davies fought very hard.”

Davies, a senior who hails from Parkersburg, W. Va., was left to pound out the match for Pitt as the last singles competitor. Her battle versus Mountaineer Ashley Constantine ended in two lost sets, 6-3 and 6-2, handing West Virginia the 4-3 win.

“We’re attempting to qualify for the Big East Championships, so every win counts,” Dieffenbach said.

Their recent loss to West Virginia sits the Panthers at 1-1 in the Big East, with a win versus Georgetown.

Seton Hall had to cancel a March 16 meeting with Pitt because of a bus malfunction and bad weather for traveling.

A matchup with Robert Morris, originally scheduled for February 28, was played yesterday afternoon. Seton Hall canceled its meeting with Pitt at WVU because of bad weather.