Borza, Fiore lead Panthers to win in final matches

Performing in the clutch is the mark of a winner, and for the Pitt women’s tennis team,… Performing in the clutch is the mark of a winner, and for the Pitt women’s tennis team, Friday afternoon’s match was no different.

The Panthers displayed mental toughness and stamina to earn a narrow 4-3 victory over the upset-minded Duquesne Dukes. The win lifts their season record to 13-9, which is the most number of wins recorded since the 1997-1998 season.

“As a team we’re playing much better and we have made a lot of improvements,” head coach George Dieffenbach said.

In doubles, however, the Panthers were only able to notch one victory.

The team of Jill Williams and Laura Pegula earned an 8-3 win over Alina Klinova and Marina Zelenovic.

But their teammates weren’t quite as successful. Katie Reidinger and Julie Wagner handed the Pitt duo of Nikki Borza and Haley Hughes a narrow 8-6 defeat.

The Dukes used a dominant performance from Sarah Shanahan and Leia Zingone to defeat Jena Fiore and Emily Hughes by a score of 8-1. The two doubles victories by the Dukes awarded them the doubles point.

In the singles matches, the Panthers turned up the intensity and with a good mix of shots, grabbed the first set in four of the six matches.

In the first seed singles match, Williams made short work of Klinova in a straight set victory by the scores of 6-4 and 6-0. Williams’ power frustrated Klinova all match and the victory tied the match at one.

Then Borza gave the Panthers the 2-1 lead when she handed Zingone a 6-1 and 7-6 (5) defeat in the second seed singles match. The match was Borza’s last as a Panther and the victory gave her 112 combined singles and doubles wins, which places her fifth all-time.

With a career singles record of 63-49 and a doubles record of 49-45, Borza sits in third and fifth place all-time respectively.

The Dukes answered back in the third singles match, as Reidinger needed three sets to defeat Pegula by a score of 6-0, 4-6 and 6-1.

The most epic of matches came in at fourth singles, as Becky Emmers grabbed the three-set win over Shanahan with a score of 6-2, 4-6 and 7-5. After the match both players were visibly exhausted and the win proved crucial to the Panthers as they pulled ahead at 3-2.

Yet again, the Dukes matched the Panthers to tie the score at three when Diana Stein notched a straight set victory of Haley Hughes in fifth singles by a score of 7-5 and 6-2.

In the end the tenacity of the Panthers shone through as Fiore defeated Wagner at No. 6 singles in three sets by the scores of 6-4, 6-7 (5) and 6-3 to claim the 4-3 win for the Panthers.

The win for Fiore will be her last as a Panther as well. Fiore finishes her career with 49 combined wins and like Borza will graduate in a few weeks.

The tandem of Borza and Fiore helped the Panthers to a 47-43 record overall for their four years here at Pitt, while improving each season’s record in all of their four seasons.

Pitt has been on a hot streak winning 10 of its last 11 matches, however the early losses to Big East opponents proved to be costly in terms of securing a berth into the Big East Championships.

“Losing the Big East matches hurt us, but winning 10 of our last 11 matches shows the kind of players we have on this team,” Dieffenbach said. “We’ll work hard during the summer and head into the fall with the goal of continuing our winning trend and reaching our conference tournament next season.”