Stela and Bella represent the past, present and future of the Miami Hurricanes tennis

It’s the Stela and Bella Show.

Stela and Bella are the No. 1 and No. 2 singles players for the Miami Hurricanes women’s tennis team. They are also Miami’s top doubles team, representing the past, present and future of Hurricanes tennis.

The “Stela” half of the duo is fifth-year senior Estela Perez-Somarriba, a native of Spain who won the NCAA’s singles national championship in 2019.

“Bella” is Isabella Pfennig, a true freshman from Germany who in just three months has risen from No. 5 singles on the Miami team to No. 2 and from No 3 doubles to No. 1.

Pfennig said playing with Perez-Somarriba is simple. The way it often works, Perez-Somarriba sets up points with brilliant shots from the baseline, and Pfennig finishes them with crushing volleys.

“Opponents are afraid of Stela because she hits so fast and deep,” Pfennig said. “It’s easy for me to finish.

“There are times when Stela’s serving, and we go up 40-0, and she has won all the points. I look at her and [joke]: ‘Hey, am I doing anything over here?’”

In reality, Pfennig does quite a lot. She finished the regular season with a 15-3 record, ranked 17th in the nation in singles, including 4-2 against top-35 players. She is also 8-4 and ranked 34th in doubles when paired with Perez-Somarriba.

Pfennig is the heir apparent to the Miami tennis crown, which has been worn with such distinction by Perez-Somarriba.

As a freshman, Perez-Somarriba was an immediate force, going 34-7, making first-team All-ACC and advancing to the NCAA singles semifinals.

She went 39-8 as a sophomore, winning ACC Player of the Year and advancing to the NCAA round-of-16 in singles.

As a junior, Perez-Somarriba was incredible, posting a 43-5 record, winning the singles national championship. The only other player in program history to win that title was Audra Cohen in 2007.

Last year, Perez Somarriba went 25-3 in a season cut short by COVID, and she is 16-2 and ranked third in the nation this season.

Perez-Somarriba is 157-25 as a singles player, setting a school record for career wins. The previous record was set by Stephanie Wagner, who went 134-44 from 2013 to 2016.

“It’s hard to put into words what Stela does,” Hurricanes coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews said. “It’s not like this kid blasts aces. She plays long points and works so hard.

“Being a national champion, she has a target on her back. If they beat her, she is the biggest win of that girl’s season, and they write letters home to grandma.”

Not many of those letters have been written.

“People come at me with everything they have, and I love that,” Perez-Somarriba said. “It forces me to increase my level of tennis.”

Yaroshuk-Tews said Perez-Somarriba wins with “amazing fitness and relentless groundstrokes” while Pfennig gets the job done with speed, power, great vision to set up points and a wider variety of shots.

There are personality differences, too, with Pfennig being a bit more light-hearted.

Case in point was Miami’s 4-3 win at Syracuse on March 12. Pfennig got destroyed in her singles match, 6-3, 6-0, on the fast, indoor courts at Syracuse.

“A typical response from a college kid after a loss like that would’ve been full of excuses,” Yaroshuk-Tews said. “But I asked Bella what happened, and she said: ‘I have no idea.’ Then, she giggled.

“She wasn’t happy she lost. But she knows how good she is, and won as a team. She wasn’t stressed.”

Pfennig continues Miami’s tradition of standout tennis players from Germany, a list that includes Wagner and Bianca Eichkorn, who is third on Miami’s career win list.

Yaroshuk-Tews said she had a great feeling when Pfennig came to Miami last fall for a recruiting visit.

“Her parents are hard-working and intelligent,” the coach said. “You recruit from great families if you want to have peaceful [drama-free] evenings.”

The only drama now is what happens the rest of this season. The Hurricanes are preparing for the the ACC Tournament, which starts Wednesday in Rome, Georgia.

From there, Perez-Somarriba seems destined to make a strong run at a second NCAA singles national championship. Pfennig could also make a run as Miami is just one of five teams in the nation with two top-20 players.

After that, Perez-Somarroba plans to go back to her hometown of Madrid, where she will launch her pro career, playing throughout Europe. She has grown fond of the hard courts in the U.S., but, knowing her competitive nature, she figures to make adjustments to clay tournaments overseas.

In the future, she plans to work in the “sports industry”, putting to use her Miami degrees. She earned a Bachelor’s in Economics and is now working on her Master’s in Sports Administration.

“I have huge respect for her as a great player and person,” Pfennig said. “Stela wants to be perfect. Sometimes she is perfect, but tennis is not perfect.

“We’re hoping she [closes her college career] in the way she deserves.”