Teresa Durham, Staff Writer
Audience members were astonished to see favored and highly ranked doubles partners switched around for the last handful of matches on both of the Pirates tennis teams this weekend.
Junior Lena Lutzeier and senior Diana Stomlega, ranked 2 in the International Tennis Association as a doubles pair, were split up between the freshman duo of Tatjana Stoll and Paula Boixader Roca.
Stomlega and Stoll were off to a fantastic start in their first doubles match, which was against Hannah Ayers/Kendall Crew of Georgia Southwestern’s Hurricanes. They beat the Hurricanes 8-2, but lost Saturday’s match against Flagler’s Saints 8-6.
Lutzeier and Boixader Roca trampled their first opponents, the Hurricanes 8-2. They were also able to claim victory at 8-5.
“We are one team, all together. The freshmen are learning from us older ones. We are improving, every day we change our doubles line up now and it looks like it’s working pretty well,” Lutzeier said.
On the men’s side, the popular team of sophomore Alberto Caceres and junior Jan Porteset was mixed with freshman team of Alvaro Chamorro and Bjorn Kurtze. Both pairs beat out their Hurricane adversaries.
Caceres and Chamorro were holding their own in Saturday’s matches against Flagler University, winning 8-6 for No. 2 doubles. Kurtze and Porteset are had a tougher time against the Saints losing No. 3 doubles, 8-6.
Head Coach McCaffrey commented on the curious switch ups.
“With all the stuff that’s going on with the university right now, it would be very easy for our team to give up and stop playing,” he said. “I’m not going to allow it. So, what I’m trying to show our guys and our women is that I’m willing to make those changes in order to win.”
“Some of our women and guys battled really hard. We lost a couple matches that we shouldn’t have … but being the state of how things are right now, my goal is to get five points every match and whatever I have to do to get those five points, we’re going to do that. I’m very pleased with both teams.”
Both teams won 7-2 overall Flagler University’s Saints.
Another Peach Belt Conference home game will begin Friday, April 7 at 2 p.m. against University of North Georgia Nighthawks. Pirates will play Young Harris’ Mountain Lions Saturday at 10 a.m. Sunday will be the last PBC game at the Armstrong Tennis Complex beginning at 10 a.m. Pirates will compete against the Lander University’s Bearcats.
