Women’s Tennis gives HPU Sharks their first loss of the season

Teresa Durham, Staff Writer

Despite injuries and some demanding games, Lady Pirates crushed Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) Sharks on Tuesday afternoon, March 7.

A tough opponent, HPU lady Sharks are ranked fifth by the ITA.

In an almost four-hour clash, the matches were lengthy and intense. Two of the singles matches ran into third-set 10-point tiebreakers that were the only matches HPU won.

The No. 1 doubles’ match was an 8-1 defeat of Sharks’ junior Oceane Adam and senior Nicole Hoynaski by the Pirates’ No. 2-ITA-ranked doubles pair Lena Lutzeier and Diana Stomlega that began the win over HPU.

Armstrong’s junior and sophomore team Tamri Chalaganidze and Alice Patch took No. 2 doubles’ 8-6 against HPU juniors Leticia dos Santos and Lara Meccico.

8-4 was the final score for No. 3 doubles’ in favor of Armstrong’s freshmen Paula Boixader Roca and Tatjana Stoll.

The singles’ matches were just as exciting and fierce.

No. 1 singles tiebreaker was the last match, finishing with the largest score for the day. Ranked eighth in singles, senior Nicole Hoynaski had a drawn-out power struggle with our rank-11 in singles Lena Lutzeier that was hindered by Lutzeier being injured.

Hoynaski made a comeback for the second set (6-4) after losing the first at 3-6. Throughout the last set, Lutzeier would be seen by the medical assistant. With the score 4-0, Hawaii called for a medical timeout. This seemed to put Lutzeier back on her game. She made several points and at 9-3, Hawaii even did a service ace. Unfortunately, the game ended the next turn at 10-4.

Pirate freshman Paula Boixader Roca was defeated by Shark junior Lara Meccico in the second and last tiebreak match for No. 2 singles at 10-3 for the third set. Same as Lutzeier, Roca won the first set, Meccico came back, 4-6 HPU. Roca made a valiant attempt versus an older player and kept Meccico on her toes the entire match. The tiebreaker ended at 10-3.

Armstrong freshman Tatjana Stoll beat out junior Oceane Adam for No. 3 singles, 6-2, 6-2. No. 4 singles was between No. 13-ranked Pirate Diana Stomlega and Barbora Kijasova with Stomlega winning at 6-4, 6-2.

Both juniors, opponent Leticia dos Santos easily fell to Pirates’ Tamri Chalaganidze in No. 5 singles, just making two games off Chalaganidze (6-1, 6-1). Pirates’ Alice Patch did the same as her fellow team member in the No. 6 singles’ match, prevailing against freshman Bianca Schulhof with two 6-1 sets.