Pirates go from state singles to team tourney
By: Justin Feil
While the three West Windsor-Plainsboro High South singles players were disappointed that they couldn’t advance farther in the state singles tournament, there wasn’t much time to think about it and do maybe what they want to do most rest.
The top-seeded Central Jersey Group IV Pirates host fifth seed Bridgewater-Raritan today. And their singles players are a big reason that WW-PS has remained unbeaten, even if they couldn’t keep their spotless records through the first two days of the state singles tournament.
Celene Chang, the fourth seed, made it the farthest, reaching Sunday’s afternoon fourth round before losing to Red Bank Catholic’s Natasha Eno in two sets. Chang, who took an SAT physics test Saturday morning and continues to play through an ankle injury and incurred an eye infection as well, had fought off Watchung Hills’ Amanda Graziadei in a three-set opening round marathon Saturday. She trailed 5-2 in the second set before rallying to win the next five games and the third set. Chang then won her afternoon match to advance to Sunday, where she opened with a straight sets win over Glassboro’s Jen Gennaoui.
"It says so much about her mentality as a player with everything else going on," said WW-PS coach Kris Squitieri. "With everything stacked up against her, she did all right despite everything."
Pirate second singles player Pearly Leung wasn’t so fortunate as she showed up late to her first-round match Saturday due to taking the SAT test as well, and could not come back from the three-game penalty and a sore back.
"It’s probably the most upset I’ve seen her all year," Squitieri said. "But I think she’ll get over it. But her back has started to get worse, so I’m worried about that. I almost had to pull her out of our first-round state match."
Third singles’ Victoria Vaynberg advanced through two rounds Saturday before falling in her opening round Sunday, but not without quite a battle. Vaynberg took Lauren Cash of Northern Highlands to three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, but couldn’t find enough winners.
"Her game has improved so much even since August," Squitieri said. "Every week it’s gotten better and better and better. In tournaments, she turns it on, even more than she does in regular matches."
The three singles will look to get back on the winning track after each dropped her first match of the season. They’ll be helped by the improvement of the Pirates’ first doubles tandem and a new second doubles combination that appears to be working well together.
"The doubles are playing really well," Squitieri said. "They played really well on Tuesday. It takes some pressure off the singles."
WW-PS remains in a tournament environment when it takes on Bridgewater. With a win, the Pirates would face the winner of East Brunswick and J.P. Stevens on Thursday at a neutral site. The tournament-tested singles will be ready and, they hope, rested.
"I’m really proud of them all," Squitieri said. "They all played really well. They gave it all they had. It’s the best players in the state and there’s nothing to be sorry about there."
Among other Packet-area players, Stacey Kalinina of Montgomery won her opening round match against Cheryl Carcram of Holy Cross before falling to Cash in the second round. WW-P North’s Christine Su also won her opening match against Kathy Zhang of Cresskill before falling to Jackie Herb of Cherry Hill East.
In the state doubles tournament on Tuesday,Lauren Cheatham of Jessica Chen of WW-P North won their opening round match before falling to McCorristin in the second round. Montgomery’s Eileen Wu and Renee Mastrosimone also opened with a win before falling in the second round.

