Pitt
Women's Eastern Collegiate Invitational
Borza Wins The Women's Eastern Collegiate Invitational
9/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Sept. 16, 2007
WEST POINT, N.Y.--Junior Kristy Borza of the women's tennis team won the Women's Eastern Collegiate Invitational, and becomes the first-ever Panther to do so in school's history. In addition, freshman Elizabeth Adams garnered a seed in the Flight C Championship match.
"This is the best accomplishment we have ever had at that championship," said head coach George Dieffenbach. "It was a bright showing for these two Panthers."
In a championship that included 248 athletes from 31 of the Division I universities, Borza (Beaver, Pa./Beaver Area) won the Flight A Singles of the invitational, earning five consecutive wins on the weekend.
"It was a great accomplishment for Kristy to win the Women's Eastern Collegiate Invitational at West Point," added Dieffenbach. "She competed hard, playing close matches in the quarterfinals, semifinals and then the finals.
"What an honor for the university to have Kristy represent our school and win this invitational. This is one of the longest running championships in the east, starting in the mid 1970's."
In the championship match, Borza defeated Denise Harijanto of Buffalo with a score of 6-4, 6-2. En route to this match, she had to comeback from two first set losses to earn the win. Borza won matches over Yolanda Callagan of St. Bonaventure (6-2, 6-0), Denise Liebschner of Seton Hall (6-1, 6-0), Long Island's Selma Babic (3-6, 6-0, 10-2), No. 2 seed Julia Korsunova (3-6, 7-5, 10-0) and then Harijanto.
In the other championship match for the Panthers, Adams (Reading, Pa./Wilson) fell 4-6, 3-6 to Buffalo's Diana Popescu. Prior to this loss, she was 4-0 with impressive wins over Dara Hawkins-Hogson of Providence (6-2, 6-0), No. 7 seed Emily Herb of UConn (6-3, 6-3), FDU's Jessica DeCarlos (6-3, 6-0) and West Virginia's Gabrielle Blaskovicova (6-1, 6-0).
In the Panthers' first tournament of the fall, Borza and Adams met in the Carnegie Mellon Flight A Championship match. Borza was victorious in the 6-0, 6-2 contest.
The Panthers' fall season will continue as they head to Raleigh, N. C. for the Wolfpack Invitational on Sept. 21-23.
