Pioneer tennis competed this weekend to mixed results, with the women winning Friday and Saturday at the Colorado Athletic Club-Monaco in Denver and the men unable to overcome tough competitors in Cambridge, Mass.  

The Pioneer women were able to earn their third straight 6-1 victory after beating the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) on Friday, advancing to 3-0 on the 2012 season.

“We started off well with a great doubles point, which is always good in a college tennis match,” said women’s head coach Jeremy Wurtzman. “Other than the match we lost, we won all our first sets and extended leads.”

Singles victories were claimed by juniors Sophia Bergner, Steffi Rath, Emma Isberg and Natalie Dunn, as well as sophomore Caroline Schnell.

The Pioneer men did not fare quite as well as the women’s team, as they were defeated 4-0 by No. 73 Harvard at the Harvard Kickoff on Friday.

“We got pretty banged up today with several guys playing hurt and Enej [Bonin] out,” said men’s head coach Danny Westerman. “But, we fought very hard and gave ourselves a shot.”

The Pioneers’ luck did not improve much on Saturday, when the men were defeated 4-1 by both DePaul and Drake, falling to 1-4 this season.

Juniors Max Krammer and Jens Vorkefeld recorded the Crimson and Gold’s only wins on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

The women finished up their weekend with another win against in-state rival Colorado State on Saturday, dropping the Rames 5-2.

For the second straight night, the Pioneer women swept the doubles competition. They won four of six singles matches, with wins by Bergner and Rath and sophomores Elena Najera and Dunn. After the victory, the women improved to 4-0 this season for the first time since the 2007-2008 campaign.

Both men’s and women’s tennis teams are back in action Saturday. The women compete against Arkansas State at CAC-Monaco and the men face Oregon at the Denver Country Club.