Panthers split a pair of matches over the weekend

The Pitt women’s tennis team (5-2 overall, 2-1 Big East) topped Big East foe Georgetown on… The Pitt women’s tennis team (5-2 overall, 2-1 Big East) topped Big East foe Georgetown on Saturday, but fell to the West Virginia Mountaineers the next day at home at the Club 4 Life Recreational Center.

Pitt 5, Georgetown 2

Georgetown clinched the double point, winning the first and third matches, but the Panthers came back to take five of the singles matches for the win.

“We very easily could have won the doubles point,” head coach George Dieffenbach said. “Two of them were very close matches.”

Pitt’s Kristy Borza and Leah Friedman outlasted Georgetown’s Stephanie Cohen and Adriann Gin in No. 1 doubles, taking the match 8-2. The Hoyas’ Natalie Newman and Taylor Martin stepped in to take No. 2 doubles with a win over Emily Hughes and Christie D’Achille, 9-7.

“We were testing a new combination in Hughes and D’Achille,” Dieffenbach said. “Both are very aggressive players and it ended in a very close score.”

The Hoyas secured the doubles point when Eileen Boyle and Liz Winokur won a tight No. 3 match over the Panthers’ Annie Davies and Becky Emmers.

Borza stepped up to start the singles play out right for the Panthers with a win in the first singles match over Cohen, 6-2, 6-8. Pitt’s Kimberly Harclerode took on Winokur in the No. 2 spot, and pulled out a win after losing the first set, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Friedman also came out on top for the Panthers with a win at No. 3 over Gin, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. The Hoyas’ Courtney Olsen downed Davies in the fourth match, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3. Hughes played Martin at the No. 5 spot and gained a point for the Panthers with a 6-3, 7-5 win, and Smith shut out Boyle at No. 6, winning 6-0, 6-0.

“We lost the doubles point, but the team knew what they had to do,” Dieffenbach said. “They had to regroup, come back strong and overcome the doubles deficit for the win.”

West Virginia 6, Pitt 1

West Virginia swept all three doubles points on their way to a 6-1 win over Pitt on Sunday. The Mountaineers (3-4, 2-0 Big East) now hold a 26-1-0 series record against the Panthers.

West Virginia’s Raynie Theis and sophomore Stacey Percival led the way at the No. 1 spot with a 9-7 win over Borza and Friedman, who hold a 10-5 doubles record. Hughes and D’Achille were defeated at No. 2 doubles by Natalia Prinz and Colleen Speaker, 8-4. Ashley Constantine and Monica Lyskawa took the third match for the Mountaineers, winning 8-4 over Emmers and Davies.

“The Panthers had a never-give-up attitude going into the singles and through every match,” Dieffenbach said.

Borza took on West Virginia’s No. 1 seed, Lyskawa, and lost 6-1, 7-5, bringing her singles record to 14-4. At No. 2, Harclerode (9-6) dropped a match to Percival that ended 6-4, 6-3. Friedman dropped her record to 9-6 after a loss at the No. 3 spot to Prinz, 6-4, 6-0.

Davies, who is from West Virginia, was downed by fellow West Virginian Speaker in the fourth match, after three close sets that ended 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. Kelly Walsh got a win at No. 5 over Hughes, 6-7, 7-6, 10-8, and Smith picked up the only point for the Panthers with a win at the No. 6 spot over Constantine, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0.

“It was a great showing from both teams and it could have gone either way,” Dieffenbach said. “There were no lopsided victories as every match was a battle. It couldn’t have gotten any closer than that match.”

The Panthers take on their neighbors at Robert Morris today at 1 p.m.