Rain ends Pitt tennis’ preseason early

Practice makes perfect, or at least the tennis players at Pitt hope it does. Even if it… Practice makes perfect, or at least the tennis players at Pitt hope it does. Even if it doesn’t, big wins in a preseason tournament suffice quite well.

During the weekend, the Pitt women’s tennis team traveled to Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., to compete in the Bucknell Fall Classic, the last tournament the team will play in preparation for the regular season.

Rain canceled some matches but Pitt was able to play one or two matches.

The tournament, which started at 9 a.m. Saturday, featured four singles flights in which the Panthers entered two women at each level.

In the A flight, Pitt entered Jill Williams and Nikki Borza, who both won their first round matches, with Williams also winning her second.

Williams defeated Marist’s Amanda Boetsch handily, 6-0 and 6-1 in the opening round. She then beat Liora Gelbelum from Georgetown, 6-1 and 7-5, a big win for her, having lost both matches last year against Gelbelum.

“That was a really good result for Jill,” head coach George Dieffenbach said about Williams’ performance in the second round. “She really got up for the match and stayed aggressive throughout. It was a great showing for her.”

Borza won her first match over Bloomsburg’s Miranda Campbell, 6-3 and 6-3. In Borza’s next match against Bucknell’s Rolani Brown, the match was split at one set apiece.

For this tournament a super tiebreak, played in normal tiebreak format but to 10 points by two, would decide the outcome of the match.

Unfortunately, Borza was unable to keep the momentum from her second set win, and lost the tiebreak, 4-10, giving the match to Brown with a final score of 2-6, 7-5 and 4-10.

In the B flight for Pitt, Becky Emmers was defeated by Binghamton’s Justine Hakimi, 1-6 and 2-6, in her opening match, and Laura Pegula was forced to retire in her match against Binghamton’s Alexis Brill because of illness.

Hayley Hughes, entered in the C flight, had little difficulty winning her first match over Loyola’s Claire Najour, 6-0 and 6-2. Hughes’ second match was suspended because of the rain, with Hughes down in the first set, 2-5, to Georgetown’s Mo Ghia.

Also in the C flight was Jena Fiore, who lost in difficult fashion to Binghamton’s Erin Monaco, 4-6, 6-4 and 4-10.

“Jena played a really good match and adjusted her game well after the beginning of the match,” Dieffenbach said. “She especially played well at the baseline.”

In the D flight, Emily Hughes defeated Georgetown’s Meredith Bumpass, 3-6, 6-3 and 10-4, in a match that Dieffenbach said was, “a definite confidence builder” for Hughes as a freshman.

Also in the D flight, and rounding out the action for the Pitt women, was Brooke Yablonski, who beat Marist’s Katie Zymanski in convincing fashion, 6-1 and 6-2.

Neither the Pitt women in the D flight nor Williams in the A flight got the opportunity to play their next matches because of the weather.

“Even though the rain coming was a shame, it was a really good tournament, and I felt that we had a chance to be really competitive in each draw,” Dieffenbach said.