Women’s Tennis Pulls off Quarterfinal Upset

Our Pitt-Greensburg Women’s Tennis team pulled off a major upset on Sunday, Oct 15. They defeated Medaille College by a score of 5-4 in the quarterfinal round of AMCC playoff tournament. Kasey McIntosh, Kayla Morrill, Emily Frye, Rebecca Beaumont and Hannah Sterrett all won their singles matches to clinch the victory. Amanda Jepsen also had a strong showing.

Coach Doug Smeltzer, 23, said that the team has, “Greatly exceeded my expectations coming into the year.”

Regarding the big playoff win, he said, “To pull off an upset in the playoffs really proved just how hard they’ve been working all year.”

The team’s two captains this year were seniors Amanda Jepsen and Emily Frye. When asked about Frye’s leadership, Smeltzer said, “She’s been simply fantastic at bringing the team together. Our chemistry is what has gotten us where we are and she’s been a big part of that.”

Frye was also a big part of the team’s win at Medaille, “She was the one that didn’t win last time (the team played Medaille) that came through and won for us. She really put the team on her back,” said Smeltzer.

The team’s leader in singles wins this season was sophomore Rebecca Beaumont. Smeltzer said that, “Becca really helped hold our season together. We struggled the first half of the year and she was a big part of getting us back on track.”

This was Smeltzer’s first season coaching the team. He graduated from Pitt-Greensburg in Spring of 2017 after spending four years here and playing on the Men’s Tennis Team for three.

Talking about coaching, he said, “Coming in it was a little nerve-racking. I didn’t want to let the team down being a brand-new coach. One of the things that helped was that I had classes with all of our seniors over the past three years. They really helped make me feel comfortable with the team.”