Borza Reunites With More Than The Game
12/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Dec. 3, 2010
When Kristy Borza finished her playing career at Pitt in the spring of 2009, she had been named team MVP three times, reached 100 victories faster than any other player in school history and held numerous school records - including doubles wins in a season and combined wins in a career.
Elizabeth Adams, who was Borza's doubles teammate for two seasons, was a big part of that. And now in Adams' senior season, Borza is back as a coach for Pitt and helping Adams make her own mark in Pitt tennis history.
"I'm definitely glad to have her back because she's one of the people I really looked up to as a teammate," Adams said of Borza. "Since we were doubles partners, we roomed together on trips and were together all the time. We really built a close relationship."
With Borza as an assistant coach, that relationship has a chance to continue.
In the year following her college graduation, Borza stayed involved with the game by coaching youth at a local tennis club. She then found the opportunity to coach at Pitt, and didn't hesitate to make her way back to the place where she had such an impact as a student-athlete.
"To be on the court with the girls, the memories and the competitive feeling is super-fresh," Borza said. "Especially having Elizabeth on the team and some other girls who I played with still around, I feel like I have an advantage as a coach. It feels natural."
That doesn't mean things won't be different, though, as Adams said she still has to separate Borza as a teammate and Borza as a coach.
"I'll be thinking about how she's back, and then I'll have to get into that mindset that she's my coach now," Adams said. "But she's a great leader and always has been. That hasn't changed."
Adams currently sits in a tie for fourth place on Pitt's all-time total wins list with 124, and is just two wins away from moving into a third-place tie with former Pitt standout Annie Davies. Only Davies (126 wins), Carlie Smith (135 wins) and Borza (176 wins) currently rank ahead of her. And while Borza is certainly proud of her personal record at Pitt, there's nothing she'd like more than to help coach Adams as deep into the record books as possible.
"I feel like she's a big part of my record," said Borza, who was Pitt's 2009 Blue-Gold recipient and had her named etched on the Pitt Varsity Walk. "I was hurt during my senior year and I got a ton of doubles wins because Elizabeth had such a breakout year. She really took over a lot of our doubles matches and got us big wins. A lot of my success boiled down to having a great doubles partner, and I had that with Elizabeth. So I'll always remember her as part of my record."
Aside from coaching Adams, there's another twist to Borza's first season of collegiate coaching. Her younger sister, Kimmy, is currently a freshman, who won her first collegiate match in a tight contest against rival West Virginia.
"They were losing and came back and played really well to win in a tie-breaker," Kristy said. "It was Kimmy's first career match and my first career match as a coach. It was a fun way to start."
Pitt is off from competition for the remainder of December and will begin its 2011 schedule with a Jan. 26 matchup at Penn State. The Panthers have 17 matches scheduled before the Big East Championships begin April 28.