Injured Chang unable to play in Pirates’ loss to East Brunswick
By: Justin Feil
The West Windsor-Plainsboro High South girls’ tennis team wasn’t supposed to feel the effects of missing Celene Chang until next season.
By, then of course, the Pirates’ four-year first singles player will have graduated and moved onto college.
Thursday, they got a sneak peak of something what it will be like next season when Chang was forced to miss their Central Jersey Group IV final against East Brunswick because of a severe ankle. As a result, normal second singles’ Pearly Leung and third singles’ Victoria Vaynberg each moved up one flight and top JV singles player Diana Philipova played third singles. The first doubles team of Kim Lee Lum and San Pal and second doubles team of Vicky Lelgant and Jennifer Wills played in their regular flights.
"It was kind of a last-minute decision," said Pirate first-year head coach Kris Squitieri. "She thought about it last night. She decided it would be better if she didn’t play.
"Right away, the girls came in kind of down. The girls didn’t know what was going to happen. I told them, ‘We’ve got to battle back. Go out and give it everything you have."
WW-P South did, but it wasn’t enough in a 3½-1½ loss to East Brunswick that ended its CJ IV run at two titles. Only Vaynberg survived the move in the singles positions, and she split sets, taking the first set 6-3 and losing the second, 7-5, but by then the match had been decided and no tiebreaker was played. In fact, both the Pirate highlights – Vaynberg’s resilience and a three-set win by the Pirates’ second doubles tandem against Barri Frankfuter and Christine Munteanu — came after the match had been decided.
Philipova lost, 6-0, 6-1 to East Brunswick’s Jamie Doud while Leung suffered her first loss of the dual meet season, 6-3, 6-4 to Alina Balasa. The first doubles team lost 6-1, 6-4 to Anna Kupershteyn and Jenny Tsay.
"It’s hard," Squitieri said. "I’m not saying that I’m taking this no problem. I’m disappointed. But we’re now 15-1 and we made it to the finals of Central Jersey.
"In light of everything," she added, "they got to this point. They got here. I told them, ‘You guys are here. No matter what happens today, I’m proud of you.’ They did great. I’m proud of every one of these girls."
WW-PS had lived all season by its singles play. Chang, Leung and Vaynberg had each lost just once this year going into the CJ IV final, all coming in the state singles tournament. But all three had also battled injuries, according to Squitieri, and Chang’s came to a head in Wednesday’s match against Steinert.
"We think it’s a ligament injury," she said. "It’s been nagging her for weeks. She played against Steinert and it bothered her the whole time. Last night, it was swollen again."
Leung had to contend with an ailing back that had her hunched over between games as recently as a week ago. But as she sat stewing on the court following her match, it was obvious that the real pain for Leung, the only senior in the Pirate lineup along with Chang, came from the team’s defeat.

