Madison Watkins, Staff Writer

This past weekend, the Pirates Tennis teams fought hard with matches from Friday through Sunday.

The teams beat Lindsey Wilson on Friday Feb. 17, lost to Lynn on Saturday Feb. 18 and beat Saint Leo on Sunday Feb. 19.

The men’s team swept all of their opponents who played for Saint Leo University with a score of 3-0. The women’s doubles finished with a 2-1 due to a tiebreaker with number two doubles team, Tatjana Stoll and Paula Boixader Roca.

Then the players moved on to singles. The women’s team won four of their six matches with wins at number one by Lena Lutzeier, number four by Roca, number five by Alice Patch and number six singles by Tamri Chalaganidze. These wins helped the Pirates get their 6-3 win over Saint Leo.

The men’s team had three wins for singles at number four by Ignacio Hernandez, number five by Alvaro Cruz Chomorro and number six singles by Lorenzo Camilli. These gave the Pirates the ability to clinch the win over Saint Leo 6-3.

After losing their first home match in 14 years to Lynn University on Saturday, the Pirates knew they would have to come back better than ever. “We knew that we would have to do better the next day. I didn’t need to tell the girls anything else,” junior business economics major and women’s team captain Lena Lutzeier said. “This win against a top-ranked team is very important for us, especially after the tough loss yesterday but we learned from it and came back today even stronger.”

Freshman business economics major and men’s team member Lorenzo Camilli is confident in the team’s ability to strategize and gain confidence moving forward.

“If we get the chance to play Lynn again, we’ll be more confident and try to be better from now on,” he said. “The lineup also may be changed to help the team win.”

“We also have not had a lot of matches yet. Once we start playing more we will get better.”

The Pirates play their next match Friday Feb. 24 at USC Aiken. Their next home match will be March 1 against Tiffin.