Tennis drops pair in Fla.

The Pitt women’s tennis team got to spend part of its spring break in sunny Florida, but… The Pitt women’s tennis team got to spend part of its spring break in sunny Florida, but dropped both of their matches against their southern opponents. The Panthers recorded their second loss of the season last Wednesday in Ft. Lauderdale against Nova Southeastern and dropped their record to 6-3 with a loss to Seton Hall the next day in Boca Raton, Fla.

Nova Southeastern 9, Pitt 0

Head coach George Dieffenbach said that the Panthers played hard against their No. 18-ranked opponents in Wednesday’s shutout.

“There was a lot of talent on [Nova Southeastern],” he said. “We were close in a lot of matches but didn’t pick one up.”

The Sharks swept all three doubles matches to pick up the lead early. Pitt’s Kristy Borza and Leah Friedman teamed up against the Sharks’ Alexa Korotkevich and Ulia Talalenko for an 8-2 loss at the No. 1 doubles spot.

“Leah and Kristy had a good performance,” Dieffenbach said, “They were aggressive, but they made a few more errors than their opponents, costing them the match.”

Emily Hughes and Christie D’achille lost 8-1 at No. 2 doubles to Tsippy Waterman and Andrea Moncada. Annie Davies and Becky Emmers fought hard at No. 3 doubles but were defeated 8-4 by Jessica Homerlein and Anna Schmidtmann.

Smith ended her five-game winning streak in singles play against the Homerlein with a score of 6-1, 6-2 at the No. 6 spot.

Borza fought hard at the No. 1 spot with a tight loss to Korotkevich, 7-5, 6-2.

“[Borza] did well at No. 1,” Dieffenbach said, “Her opponent was very talented.”

Talalenko defeated Pitt’s Kim Harclerode at No. 2 singles, 6-1, 6-0, while at No. 3, Friedman lost to Waterman 6-3, 6-0. Davies held up a close match to the end, but lost at No. 4 to Moncada, 6-3, 6-4. Schmidtmann defeated Hughes at the 5-spot, 6-2, 6-2, and Homerlein defeated Smith 6-1, 6-1, at No. 6.

Seton Hall 6, Pitt 1

Big East opponent Seton Hall cruised through its conference opener to a 6-1 victory over the Panthers.

Pitt picked up only one match after Seton Hall swept all three of the doubles matches to take the lead 1-0. Borza and Friedman lost to the Pirates’ Viviana Figueroa and Nadja Sein in No. 1 doubles, 8-1. Hughes and D’achille teamed up for the Panthers against Iva Gyurgina amd Danielle Viola at No. 2 and lost 8-4.

At No. 3 doubles, Emmers and Davies were defeated 8-2 by the Sylvia Jaros and Ebru Burduroglu, 8-2.

“We played strong, aggressive doubles,” Dieffenbach said, “but we made a few more errors than our opponents.”

Borza picked up the only point for the Panthers at No. 1 singles as she defeated Figueroa, 6-0, 6-4.

“Borza had an outstanding showing,” Dieffenbach said, “She played two complete matches. She attacked, she controlled, she had high first-serve percentages and excellent ground strokes.”

Friedman lost a close match at No. 2 singles against Jaros, 6-1, 5-7 (10-8).

“It was a great performance by Friedman, where the effort level was high,” Dieffenbach said.

Amanda El-Tobgy beat Davies at No. 3, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3, in a match that Dieffenbach said could have easily gone either way. Hughes fell at No. 4 by Sein, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), Smith lost 6-4, 6-3 to Gyurgina at No. 5, and D’achille was defeated at No. 6, 6-0, 6-0, by Viola.

“We played very well in singles,” Dieffenbach said. “The matches were all close and all well-played.”

The Panthers are now 6-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big East. Pitt will play again this Saturday at the Pittsburgh Indoor Tennis Club in East Liberty at 10 a.m. They take on St. Vincent, and follow that match at 3 p.m. against St. Francis (Pa.).