The West Virginia women’s tennis team is looking to get back on track Thursday as it travels to rival Pittsburgh to kick off Big East Conference play.
The Mountaineers (4-2) went 1-2 in their three matches last week. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, will be in playing its first match of the year after the Panthers’ match with Maryland over the weekend was canceled due to inclement weather.
The match will start at noon at The Club, Pitt’s indoor facility, in Monroeville, Pa. It was originally scheduled for today but was rescheduled due to inclement weather.
"We’ve struggled with them the past three years, and we haven’t been able to put them away when we’ve had them," said West Virginia head coach Marc Walters. "But this is a team right now that’s showing they can come out of their shell in big sets and big games.
"I like our chances."
If Walters’ team wants to play well and come out of Pittsburgh with a victory, it will need another solid performance from junior Monique Burton and sophomore Veronica Cardenas.
Both were big in WVU’s 4-3 win over Eastern Kentucky Sunday that broke the team’s two-game losing streak.
Burton picked up a win out of the No. 1 spot, while Cardenas picked it up at the end of her match, winning out of the No. 2 spot in three sets, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.
"Monique played hard in all three of her matches this weekend, and I’m very proud of her conditioning. It was great watching her hold up the way she did," Walters said. "Veronica sat out in the match Saturday, and by the third set of her match Sunday, you could tell that she was just in better shape."
As a team, Walters said the Mountaineers must come out of the gates fast.
"We really just need to keep grinding it out in our first sets, because it seems by the end of the first sets, we usually kick it into another gear," he said.
The match against the Panthers will be the last match in a four-match road trip for the team before they come back to Morgantown to continue its Big East schedule against Georgetown.
"It’s tough playing on the road this much," Walters said. "But we rested a few people on Saturday and Sunday to keep them fresh, so that should turn out to be a pretty good decision."
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