Women’s tennis preps for season at Bucknell Classic

Members of the Pitt women’s tennis team traveled to Bucknell University over the weekend to… Members of the Pitt women’s tennis team traveled to Bucknell University over the weekend to compete in the Bucknell Fall Classic, a tournament that the team participates in as preparation for the regular season.

The tournament featured six flights of singles and doubles, in which the Panthers entered two women each in Flight A and B singles, one pairing each in Flight A and B doubles, and one participant in Flight C singles.

In the A flight, Pitt entered Becky Emmers and Anne Davies, who both lost their first-round matches, but Davies was able to win one match during back draw play.

Emmers was defeated by Georgetown University’s Jordan Botjer, 6-1 and 6-3, in the opening round. She was then given the opportunity to play another match in the back draw, but came up short against Lida Hokkanen of Bloomsburg University, losing in two sets, 6-2 and 6-3.

In Davies’ first match against Bucknell’s Tanya Sichko, Davies came back from a 6-0 first set loss and was able to even the match after taking the second set, 6-2.

Unfortunately, Davies was unable to keep the momentum from her second-set win, and lost the tiebreak, 10-4, giving the match to Brown with scores of 6-0, 2-6 and 10-4.

Davies moved on to the back draw and came away with a win against Bloomsburg’s Julianne Bramante, 6-3 and 6-2. Then, in the third round of the back draw, Davies was knocked out of the tournament by Marist College’s Yana Tikhonko 8-4.

In the B flight, Pitt’s Hayley Hughes came back from being down a set to defeat Georgetown’s Lara Madonia, 3-6, 7-5 and 10-8. In her second-round match, Hughes played into a third-set tiebreaker, but came out on the losing end, this time, falling to Duquesne’s Jackie Hughes, 7-6, 4-6, and 10-7.

Also in Flight B, Emily Hughes won her first round match, 6-2, 6-0. In her second round match, Hughes took the first set, 6-0, but Georgetown’s Monisha Ghia came back to take the second set and tiebreaker to win the match, 0-6, 7-5, 10-4.

The Panthers’ Konita Jude played in the C flight and had difficulty in her first match, losing to Bloomsburg’s Chelsea Mills, 6-1 and 6-2. Jude’s second match was tightly contested and came down to a tiebreaker, but Jude could not pull off the win. She was defeated by Marist’s Courtney McGeever, 3-6, 7-6, and 10-3.

In doubles Flight A competition, the Pitt team of Hughes and Davies dominated their first-round match, defeating the Bloomsburg pair of Hokkanen and Lauren Colfer 8-1. In their second round match, the Pitt team was defeated by Villanova’s Candice Carlin and Melissa Reed by a score of 8-4.

Emmers and Emily Hughes, Pitt’s participants in Flight B doubles, lost their first round match to Marist’s team of Yana Krugly and Tikhonko, 8-4. In the back draw, they played an extremely close match, but came up short against Bloomsburg’s Bramante and Lindsey Wyckoff 9-8.

This weekend, Pitt will travel to West Point, N.Y., to participate in the Women’s Eastern Collegiate Tournament, which features over 30 teams from all over the East Coast and is slated to go from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5.