Women’s tennis competes in tourney

Every member of the Pitt women’s tennis team was able to come up with at least one victory… Every member of the Pitt women’s tennis team was able to come up with at least one victory when the Panthers competed at the Women’s Eastern Collegiate in West Point, N.Y over the weekend.

The individually contested Eastern Collegiate Tournament, which is played with four singles and two doubles flights, is the largest college tennis tournament in the country, bringing together 24 eastern U.S. teams.

Pitt entered five players in the tournament, which was the third tournament that the Panthers have participated in to prepare for the regular season.

Pitt’s highlight of the tournament was provided by the doubles team of Anne Davies and Hayley Hughes, who made it to the semifinals of the No. 1 doubles flight.

Davies and Hughes began their run with a dominant first-round effort against Rhode Island’s Meredith Haas and Becca Hedden; the Pitt team prevailed 8-0. The second round had the Pitt women set to face the No. 1-seeded team of Alina Balasa and Jill Markowitz of Rutgers.

Davies and Hughes were able to come away with an 8-6 victory after taking down the top seed.

“This was a big win, which gave us confidence and showed that we could play with the best,” Head coach George Dieffenbach said,

In the quarterfinals, Davies and Hughes took on Christi Lazar of UConn and Sara Markiewicz of Army and defeated them, 8-3.

In the semifinals, Davies and Hughes were matched up against the No. 4-seeded team of Jenny Munroe and Stephanie Price of UMass. They played to a very close result, but could not come out on the winning side. UMass won the match, 8-6, ending Davies’ and Hughes’ run.

“This was a really good accomplishment for the girls,” Dieffenbach said. “There was one team in the 1980s that reached the finals at this tournament, but this was definitely the best result Pitt has had in recent years.”

With the run of wins, Hughes now has 93 career wins and will probably break into the 100-win club at the beginning of the regular season. According to Dieffenbach, Hughes could also have a chance to break the school record of 124 career wins.

Becky Emmers represented Pitt in the No. 1 singles flight and came away with two wins on the weekend. In her first-round match, she was defeated 7-5, 6-3 by Hofstra’s Erika Reggiani.

Emmers then moved to the consolation round, where she defeated Army’s Leah Gaunt, 8-2. Emmers then took on Rheanna Gaskin of Bucknell in the consolation semifinals, but was defeated, 8-5.

At No. 2 singles, Emily Hughes began her tournament against Long Island’s Merve Koksal. Koksal won the match 6-0 and 6-0, sending Hughes into the consolation bracket.

In her first consolation match, Hughes defeated Providence’s Cheri Lapane, 8-6. In the consolation quarterfinals, Hughes was knocked out by Bucknell’s Tanya Sichko, 8-6.

Konita Jude, Pitt’s entrant in the No. 3 singles, had a difficult time in her opening-round match against Marist’s Yana Krugly and lost, 6-3, 6-0.

In the consolation round, Jude was ready to face Loyola’s Gina Turturiello, but Turturiello withdrew because of injury, moving Jude into the consolation semifinals. In that round, Dorothy Iwanowicz of UMass defeated Jude, 8-2.

“The girls have been working hard, and this weekend, it showed that we are improving. We were able to win some matches, and with some more work, we will definitely be ready for the regular season,” Dieffenbach said.

Pitt will enter the team of Hughes and Davies in doubles and Emmers in singles at the remaining tournament of the fall season, the ITA meet, which will be held at Virginia Tech. on Oct. 24.