Pitt tennis sweeps weekend matches with back-to-back shutouts

The Pitt tennis team rebounded from two losses last week to drop two teams at home over the… The Pitt tennis team rebounded from two losses last week to drop two teams at home over the weekend, sweeping them both 7-0. The Panthers topped both St. Vincent and St. Francis (Pa) on Saturday at the Pittsburgh Indoor Tennis Club to improve their season record to 8-4.

Pitt 7, St. Vincent 0

The Panthers started the match out right, sweeping the doubles matches to pick up the doubles point for a quick 1-0 lead over the Bearcats. Kristy Borza and Leah Friedman played the Bearcats’ Sarah Rendulic and Lori Orthen at No. 1 doubles for an 8-0 win. Pitt’s Annie Davies and Becky Emmers also picked up an 8-0 shutout at No. 3 doubles against Ashley Ogline and Ashley Nord.

At the No. 2 spot, Emily Hughes and Christie D’achille teamed up for Pitt against Ellie Fayen and Kim Meier for an 8-2 win.

Singles play went just as smoothly for the Panthers, who had little trouble picking up all six singles points. At No. 1, Borza took on Rendulic and shut her out 6-0, 6-0 while Friedman picked up a point at No. 2 doubles, defeating Orthen 6-1, 6-2 and Davies pulled out another win at No. 3 over Fayen, 6-0, 6-1. Hughes took on Nord for a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 4, Smith swept Ogline at No. 5, 6-0, 6-0, and D’achille picked up the final point at No. 6 with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Meir.

Although it did break the team’s losing streak, head coach George Dieffenbach pointed more toward his team’s confidence in matches they should win as the most important aspect of the sweep.

“You learn to relax and still be intense when you play weaker teams,” he said.

Pitt 7, St. Francis (Pa) 0

The Panthers may have used the same relaxed intensity later that day when they picked up their second shutout over St. Francis (Pa). Pitt won all three doubles matches for a solid doubles point, starting its second match out on top.

Borza and Friedman pulled out another 8-0 victory at the No. 1 doubles spot over the Red Flash’s Ruxandra Ionescu and Eva Keresztes to improve their doubles record to 13-6. Davies and Emmers recorded an 8-0 win over Lauren Gamerro and Rebecca Seybold at No. 3 doubles, while Hughes and D’achille topped Mallary Palmer and Danielle Gauthier, 8-1, at the No. 2 spot.

Singles also went the way the Panthers wanted them to, as all six points went to Pitt.

Borza took on Ionescu at No. 1 singles for a 6-0, 6-0 sweep, giving her an 18-5 singles record on the season. Kimberly Harclerode pulled out a win at No. 2 singles over Keresztes, beating her 6-0, 6-1. At No. 3 singles, Friedman improved her record to 12-8 with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Gauthier while Davies defeated Palmer at No. 4, 6-4, 6-0, and Hughes picked up a point at the No. 5 spot with a victory over Gamerro, 6-0, 6-0, to move to 12-8 on the season. Smith finished off the shutout with a 6-0, 6-0 sweeping victory at No. 6 over Johnna Jackson, improving her singles record to 17-6 in the process.

“These were two fairly easy matches for us,” Dieffenbach said. “The challenging matches are really ahead of us. We will practice hard today, we will practice hard tomorrow and we will be prepared for tough matches from here on out.”

The first of the tough matches for the Panthers comes tomorrow when they will travel to take on the Penguins of Youngstown State at noon.