Tennis defeats Seton Hall, falls to Rutgers in Big East

The Pitt women’s tennis team won its ninth match in a row by defeating Seton Hall on… The Pitt women’s tennis team won its ninth match in a row by defeating Seton Hall on Saturday, but snapped the winning streak on Sunday against Rutgers.

Pitt 4, Seton Hall 3

Jena Fiore and Emily Hughes fought back in their match at the third doubles seed and Hayley Hughes at fifth singles to pick up a critical win for the Panthers. The duo was down 7-4 and fought back to tie the score at seven before winning the match 9-7.

“That was a really significant victory for those two and the team and it turned out to be critical,” head coach George Dieffenbach said. “Hayley Hughes’ match clinched it at the end [but] this was truly a team effort.”

Hughes also fought back in her match and clinched a Pitt victory. Hughes dropped the first set 7-5 to Lara Spagnuolo and rebounded to win the second set 6-2. In the final set, Hughes won 6-3.

At the first doubles seed, Jill Williams and Laura Pegula defeated Kim Barfoss and Lorell Zamot 8-5. Nikki Borza and Hughes lost to Emelie Akerbrant 8-6 at second doubles.

Williams defeated Barfoss at first singles 6-4, 6-2. Zamot rebounded from her doubles match to beat Borza at the second singles seed.

Pegula defeated Akerbrant 6-1 in straight sets at fourth singles. Pitt’s Becky Emmers won the first set at the fourth seed of singles, but lost the next two sets to Seton Hall’s Viviana Figueroa 6-1, 6-2.

The Pirates’ Erin Burke defeated Fiore in three sets – 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

“This was definitely our best match of the year,” Dieffenbach said. “This was the first victory our team has had vs. Seton Hall since we entered the [Big East] Conference in the ’80s.”

Rutgers 4, Pitt 0

Rutgers got off to a fast start as it won its first two matches at first and second singles. The Scarlet Knights’ Andrea Weckstein and Carissa Sommerlad defeated Williams and Borza respectively in two sets.

Williams and Weckstein faced off in the first singles match. Weckstein won the first set 6-3 and the second set 6-2. Sommerlad defeated Borza 6-1, 6-2 at the second singles seed.

The Scarlet Knights’ Jennifer Hellier’s victory over Pegula also only lasted two sets. Hellier won the first set by a close score of 7-5, but came back and blanked Pegula in the second set 6-0.

In doubles action, the combination of Weckstein and Sommerlad was lethal again as they beat Williams and Pegula 9-7 at first doubles.

The combination of Borza and Hughes produced Pitt’s only victory of the day with an 8-4 defeat of Hellier and Ketevan Shmakova at the second doubles seed. At third doubles, Alina Balasa and Jill Markowitz of Rutgers defeated Pitt’ s Jena Fiore and Emily Hughes 8-2. The match was shortened because of weather conditions.

“Rutgers is a class team with tough competitors,” Dieffenbach said. “There is no shame in losing to players of that caliber.”

With the loss, the Panthers snapped a nine-game winning streak, but is guaranteed a winning season, which was a goal at the beginning of the season.

“Our team is a tough team. We realized we played a tough team, so we held our heads high,” Dieffenbach said. “We have achieved our goal of having a winning record.”

The Panthers are in action tomorrow at Duquesne. Fiore and Borza can set milestones by winning both of their matches. Borza can move into a tie for fourth place on the Panthers’ all-time wins list and Fiore can earn her 50th win. The match begins at 3 p.m.