Pitt Tennis gets weekend split

A week after opening the season with a 5-2 win at Cincinnati, Pitt’s tennis team split its two… A week after opening the season with a 5-2 win at Cincinnati, Pitt’s tennis team split its two games at Marshall University’s campus in Barbourville, W.Va., winning against Morehead State and losing to the host Thundering Herd.

“I thought the whole team did very, very well. It shows that in the doubles that we have work to do. In terms of our singles, I thought everybody did very well,” head coach George Dieffenbach said of his team’s performance on the weekend.

Pitt 5, Cincinnati 2

The Panthers swept the doubles from the Bearcats with the tandems of Kristy Borza/Leah Friedman, Kim Harclerode/Carlie Smith and Emily Hughes/Becky Emmers staving off Carling Arundel/Jenny Rowen, Hannah Hinton/Elizabeth Young and Madison Reasoner/Lindsay Willeford by respective scores of 8-4, 8-5 and 8-2.

In singles, Borza swept Young 6-1, 6-2, Friedman swept Rowen 6-4, 6-3 and Smith swept Arundel 6-3, 6-2. Freshman Christie D’achille came back to defeat Reasoner in three sets, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5. Pitt’s downers were Willeford defeating Harclerode in three, 5-7, 6-1, 4-6, and Cincinnati’s Jill Klauck swept Emily Hughes 5-7, 2-6.

Pitt 7, Morehead St. 0

Pitt swept the singles competition from MSU 7-0 last Saturday afternoon. Borza defeated Mariana Weschenfelder, 7-5 and 6-0. In subsequent seeding order, fellow frosh Harclerode defeated Fernanda Chaparni 7-5, 6-1 and Friedman handled Laura Ferreria 6-2. 6-2. Hughes contained Leah Lobnitz 6-1, 6-0, Smith defeated Megan Sammons 6-2, 6-1 and D’achille held off Heather Butt in three sets

The Panthers took two of the three doubles matches with Borza and Friedman defeating Weschenfelder at the No. 1 spot, 8-3, and Hughes and Emmers defeating Butt and Sammons at the No. 3 spot, 8-4. Pitt’s lone setback in the doubles was a loss by Harclerode and Smith to MSU’s Chaparni and Ferreria by an 8-6 count.

Marshall 7, Pitt 0

Later that Saturday, Pitt found out how swiftly the tides could change in the world of singles. The Thundering Herd reversed Pitt’s earlier score with a 7-0 shutout of their own.

Borza was downed by Marshall’s top-seed, Lynzee Kerver 7-5, 6-3 after holding a 5-2 lead. Harclerode fell to Kellie Shmitt 6-3, 6-0. Caroline Soor defeated Friedman 6-1, 6-2, and Jeannie Schwarts defeated Hughes 6-2, 6-1. Shannon Brown knocked off Smith 6-3, 6-1, and D’achille fell to Jessica Keener by a 6-1 count in both sets.

To make matters worse, the Panthers opened the match going 0-3 in doubles. Kerver and Shmitt defeated the tandem of Borza and Friedman 8-1. The duos of Brown/Soor and Schwarts and Keener blanked Pitt’s duets of Harclerode/Smith and Hughes/Emmers 8-0.

“We had hoped we could carry some momentum from the Morehead State match into the Marshall match. Marshall is a very strong team. They have weapons at every position in the lineup. Our scores in singles I thought were very respectable,” Dieffenbach said.

“My team learns a lot when they play a team like Marshall. You work to imitate your opponents and Marshall had a lot of offense and they were very consistent too,” he said. “They can hit the ball hard and they can place it and not miss shots.”

Borza improves her singles record to 11-3 and Smith follows her at 10-4. Harclerode, Friedman and Hughes are 6-5 and D’achille is now 2-1.

The Panthers will be on the road next to take on St. Bonaventure and Mercyhurst on Friday at 4 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m., respectively.