Borza and Williams gain experience at Rolex tourney

Throughout the fall tennis schedule, Jill Williams and Nikki Borza established themselves as… Throughout the fall tennis schedule, Jill Williams and Nikki Borza established themselves as Pitt’s best 1-2 punch on the courts. Last weekend, head coach George Dieffenbach pitted his best against the top performers of the east at the Rolex Championship.

Pitt’s run at the tournament, held at the University of Pennsylvania, was relatively short, since Williams and Borza were up against some of their most highly regarded Big East rivals.

Williams went down in the first round of singles competition and Williams and Borza lost in the first round of doubles. But Dieffenbach believes his team still took a lot away from the tournament.

“Winning can sometimes be measured in learning,” said Dieffenbach. His team now has some time off to build on its fall performance before competition starts again in February.

“The girls played hard and represented the University outstandingly,” he said.

Williams competed in the top section of the singles tournament and faced off against Georgetown’s best player, Liora Gelblum. Williams fell to Gelblum 6-1, 6-4 in straight sets.

“Jill put up a good fight,” said Dieffenbach of the sophomore, who has faced the opposition’s number one singles player in each meet this fall. “It was very even in the second set, but the other girl just got more balls back, angled the ball more and was in more control of the match. Jill learned a lot from playing that match.”

Williams teamed up with Borza later in the tournament, and they went against Virginia Tech’s best duo of Meredith Vincent and Carolyn Kramer. Williams and Borza lost the single set match 8-3.

“Those two girls controlled the net, attacked, didn’t make many errors and were more aggressive,” Dieffenbach said.

While they didn’t come away with any wins, the experience the women got from going up against the best in the Big East could come in handy when spring rolls around. The team will be seeing those teams again.

Until then, Dieffenbach wants the women to concentrate on academics. In January, he’ll hold singles challenges, giving all the team members a chance to shake up the lineups.

The women’s next match is against Mercyhurst College on Feb. 22.