Pitt tennis drop two matches to Big East rivals during weekend

Big East competitors this year have left the Pitt women’s tennis team scrambling for a win…. Big East competitors this year have left the Pitt women’s tennis team scrambling for a win. This weekend was no different.

The Panthers lost matches to Georgetown and St. John’s, on Friday and Saturday respectively, dropping their record to 3-6 overall and 0-4 in the Big East.

Both matches were on the road, in Washington, D.C.

West Virginia and Virginia Tech gave the Panthers their two previous in-conference losses.

Georgetown 6, Pitt 1

Although juniors Jill Williams and Laura Pegula secured an 8-4 victory for Pitt in the first seed doubles match, Georgetown took the doubles point by winning the No. 2 and No. 3 seed doubles matches.

“We made way too many errors against two good teams,” coach George Dieffenbach said. “If you make a lot of unforced errors, a good team will beat you.”

The Hoyas also overpowered Pitt in singles play. Neither Williams nor Pegula could create a win on her own.

Georgetown sophomore Liora Gelblum defeated Williams 1-6, 6-3, 7-6.

Pegula lost to a Georgetown opponent in a straight-set, third seed decision. Becky Emmers followed, losing the No. 4 seed singles, 6-4, 6-1.

The Hoyas thrived and took five of the six single points, leaving Pitt with its only point of the match.

Georgetown rounded out its weekend with a 7-0 loss to Syracuse and a 3-3 tie with St. John’s caused by a lack of available courts for the match to be played.

As a result, the teams suspended their doubles competitions and will only play them out if a decision in the match becomes necessary for Big East Conference Championship selection purposes.

The Hoyas brought their record to 5-5-1 on the season. Their next match is Thursday.

St. John’s 4, Pitt 3

St. John’s began its conference play on Saturday against the Panthers.

Pitt singles players broke even with the Red Storm; the doubles point proved to be the deciding factor.

“If you look at those results, we had various people performing well but not together at the same time and that’s how you win doubles points,” Dieffenbach said. “The whole team has to work together.”

Pitt’s No. 3 seed doubles team defeated St. John’s opponents handily.

“It was a blow-out,” Dieffenbach said.

But the Red Storm came back strong, winning the other two doubles contests.

“Once again the errors crept in,” Dieffenbach said of the performance of Pitt’s second seed doubles team. “We were unable to hold serve, unable to break back once we had gotten broken.”

The win for St. John’s continued a season opening-winning streak, which ended with the draw to Georgetown, leaving the Red Storm 5-0-1.

The loss for Pitt all but officially eliminated the Panthers from contention for a spot in the conference championship.

“It was critical for us to win both of these matches,” Dieffenbach said. “We needed to beat St. John’s and Georgetown.”

The Panthers’ next Big East match is against Villanova, at home, on March 29.

Dieffenbach said the team’s goal for the remainder of the season will be, “to win the rest of our matches and try to achieve a winning record.”

“[The Big East Conference] is a very tough conference. It’s a matter of the talent level and our girls play very hard, they overachieve,” Dieffenbach said. “But when you make errors, errors come back to haunt you. And we have to reduce our errors.”