Mountaineers lose to Pittsburgh and Akron

Struggles continue for head Coach Tina Samara and the West Virginia women's tennis team as they fell to 0-5 after two home matches this weekend.

Lack of depth and commitment caused the Mountaineers to play one player short as they took on rival Pittsburgh on Friday and Akron on Sunday.

One player down, West Virginia immediately had to default No. 2 doubles as well as No. 6 singles.

"It did not work out with one of our players," Samara said. "It was not anything to do with ability, it was to do with commitment."

Although they had to default the two matches against Pitt, the Mountaineers attempted to battle back in the effort.

On the No. 2 singles court, sophomore Mary Chupa handled Pittsburgh's Gabriel Catanzariti handily, beating her 6-2, 6-2.

"Mary has shown us in the past how good she can play," Samara said. "She just went out and took care of business."

Veronica Cardenas continued to shine through her senior campaign, dominating Pitt's Amanda Wickman 6-1, 6-0.

"(Cardenas) played (Wickman) this fall at our home tournament, and she beat her in three sets and it took three hours," Samara said. "This time around, (Cardenas) beat her very handily in an hour and 20 minutes, maybe.

"I think that just shows the difference in what she is doing now even compared to the fall. Things are just starting to come together."

Chupa and Cardenas could not continue their winning ways on the doubles court. Chupa teamed up with junior Emily Mathis on the No. 1 doubles court to lose a closely contested match against Jocelyn Lu and Taylor Washington, 8-6.

Cardenas joined freshman Ikttesh Chahal on the No. 2 doubles court. The duo could not put up much of a fight and lost 8-1 to Pitt's Gabrielle Catanzariti and Kimmy Borza.

The same bad luck continued Sunday as the Mountaineers took on the Akron Zips.

WVU was forced to default No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles. The Mountaineers split the doubles matches with Cardenas and Cahill beating an Akron duo 8-7.

On the singles court, Catie Wickline was the only Mountaineer to claim victory, beating Angelika Jogasuria 7-5, 6-4. West Virginia lost the match 7-0.

During this losing streak, which has taken a toll on the entire program, Samara believes both the coaching staff and the players have lost sight of why they originally started to play tennis.

"I think everyone has gotten so down and depressed, we need to find a way to have more fun," Samara said. "This is a sport; every day at practice we need to find a way to have fun.

"If we need to play more music during practice, if we need to do some fun drills or games that are not typically normal at this level, we need to find a way to make this more fun."