Women's Tennis Wins Three On The Road
3/14/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Women's Tennis Wins Three On The Road
3/14/2000
PITTSBURGH - The Panthers traveled to Glendale, Ariz., this past week to compete during their spring break and garnered impressive wins against Toledo, Albion College and Bryn Mawr College while dropping a close match to Gonzaga University. Pittsburgh's record now stands at 4-5.
Pittsburgh began competition on March 7, against Toledo. Sophomore Sarah Austin (Salisbury, Md./James M. Bennett) set the tone early with a grueling 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Marivi Cuartin in the first- seed singles match and sophomore Christin Glorioso (Fox Chapel, Pa./Fox Chapel) won another key singles match with a 6-4, 7-6(1) win against Marie Craig. Austin and junior Lindsay Carlson (Gambrills, Md./Arundel) clinched the match by defeating Cuartin and Olga Fedatova, 8-1, in the first-seed doubles match as the Panthers beat Toledo, 6-3.
The Panthers matched up against Albion College on March 8 and won all six of their singles matches with minimal difficulty. Doubles competition proved to be more of a challenge as Pittsburgh's Austin and Carlson edged Albion's top-seeded pair Tracy Gray and Melissa Hall, 8-5. Panther duo junior Dana Jafarian (Bryn Mawr, Pa./Harriton) and sophomore Nikki Borza (Beaver, Pa./Beaver Area H.S.) won a competitive match against Amiee Greene and Jessica Lefkiewicz, 8-6 helping Pittsburgh to an 8-1 victory.
On March 9, the Panthers battled Gonzaga University. Gonzaga's Sarah Ust won a close match over Austin, 3-6, 6-0, 7-6(8) in the first-seed match. Austin got another shot at Ust and paired with Carlson to defeat Ust and Thio Miller, 8-5 in the first-seed doubles match. Glorioso and junior Leah Davis (Scranton, Pa./ West Scranton H.S.) dropped a 9-8(3) decision to Melissa Juelis and Katie Rock giving Gonzaga a 6-3 victory. "That's a tough match to lose," said Head Coach George Dieffenbach. "It could just have easily been 6-3 in our favor."
Pittsburgh quickly rebounded by sweeping Bryn Mawr College 9-0 on March 10. Senior Alison Bucher (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Twp. H.S.) defeated Neta Borshansky, 6-0, 6-1 in the fifth singles spot and teamed with Davis to defeat Jamie Home and Bonnie Underwood, 8-2 in the third-seed doubles match.
Bucher now has 98 career wins (51 singles and 47 doubles). Only three other Panthers have reached the 100-victory plateau, Fran Davis (1994-98) with 124 victories, Julie LoPrinzi (1989-93) with 116 victories and most recently Erin Shalbrack (1995-99) with 113 victories.
Pittsburgh is slated to return to action on March 16 when they will try to avenge last season's heartbreaking 4-5 loss to visiting St. Bonaventure.
