Pitt tennis hands Bucknell its first defeat of the season

Sometimes, it takes two.

With the support of solid execution from its doubles teams, the… Sometimes, it takes two.

With the support of solid execution from its doubles teams, the Pitt women’s tennis team moved one step closer to reaching a .500 record, defeating Bucknell University by a score of 5-2 at home on Saturday.

“We came through and got that doubles point, which was critical for us,” coach George Dieffenbach said. “This was our best doubles showing yet.”

The win, which was the fourth in a row for the Panthers, marked a trend of recent successful doubles performances.

The Panthers have not lost a doubles point since losing to the University of California-San Diego on March 5.

“We just went through them,” junior Laura Pegula said of the Bucknell first seed of doubles.

Pegula and fellow junior Jill Williams defeated Nadezda Curcic and Veronica Brown, 8-3.

Panthers Hayley Hughes and Nikki Borza secured the doubles point with an 8-3 win in the second seed.

Pitt gained the remainder of its points by winning four of the six singles matches.

After Williams defeated Curcic at first singles, 6-0, 6-1, she asserted that Bucknell was in fact, no pushover.

“They’re all pretty tough players,” Williams said.

The scores however, spoke otherwise.

Borza defeated Brown, 6-4, 1-6, (10-4); Pegula won at third singles 6-4, 6-3; and Pitt freshman Becky Emmers put down Tanya Sichko 0-6, 6-0, 6-1.

Rheanna Gaskin and Samantha Berthod turned in Bucknell’s only points at fifth and sixth singles, respectively.

The match, which featured many impressive performances, was marred however, by a plethora of challenged calls.

Panther players repeatedly questioned judgment calls made by Bucknell.

“In the first set when she called one ball, I told her not to start with calling balls because [Bucknell] has been known to do that,” Pegula said of her opponent, Jill Wurzburg. “Usually when I feel like I’m being cheated like that I don’t think it’s fair and it really gets me more motivated.”

Dieffenbach pushed aside the disputed calls, saying they were not a factor in the match.

“That didn’t have any bearing upon this match. We told our players beforehand to block that kind of stuff out,” he said. “Our girls rose above that.”

Dieffenbach chose instead to focus on Pitt’s accomplishment.

Before the match, Bucknell was undefeated. It is now 7-1.

“Our team has improved a lot in the last six to seven to eight matches to the point where we are now able to beat a team like that,” Dieffenbach said. “This was a very good test for us.”

Pitt improved to 7-8 against a Bucknell team that Dieffenbach described as a formidable opponent.

“They are on par with those Big East teams that defeated us,” Dieffenbach said in reference to opponents such as St. John’s and Georgetown that stopped the Panthers from obtaining a Big East win.

“Had we played like this against some of the teams we lost to before we would have come out with some wins,” Borza added.

Pitt has yet to win a Big East match, but Dieffenbach is still optimistic. He predicted that the Panthers will even their record at 8-8 before gearing up for their next Big East competition against Villanova on March 29.

Pitt’s next match is at home on Thursday against Robert Morris.