Pali High Tennis Gets Singled Out

The "conventional wisdom" heading into Monday afternoon's City Championship tennis final pitting top-seeded Granada Hills High against second-seeded dictated that the underdogs needed to sweep the three doubles matches and steal one point in singles in order to dethrone the reigning titleholders.

Neither happened, however, as the Dolphins were dealt their only loss of the season, 5-2, at Balboa Sports Center in Encino. Despite the defeat, this was still a season to remember for Palisades and Coach Sean Passan, whose squad reached the finals for the first time in his four-year tenure.

"It went as expected for the most part, but a few little things just threw it off," Passan said. "We knew we had to get at least one singles win and there was a mismatch at No. 3 doubles that our players had trouble with. One of their girls looked like she was a JV player and the other was a No. 1 doubles player. It's very unusual for one player to be so much better than the other and that surprised us. It's hard to prepare for a team like this when you've been accustomed to a certain level in league all season."

Sporting blue and white hair ribbons made by seniors Jessie Corneli and Perri Zaret, the Dolphins took the court confident that they could pull off the upset. The No. 1 singles match set the tone, as the Highlanders' Sarah Nuno won a battle of freshman 6-1, 6-0 over Palisades' Diana Silvers, who turned 14 last Thursday.

"The score says otherwise, but it was a good match," said Silvers, who kept her emotions in check despite the one-sided result. "[Assistant Tournament Director] Jim Buck was there and I wanted to make a good impression. I tried to move her around and beat her at net. She's good and I did like playing her. We're the same age so I look forward to playing her more, hopefully in the Individuals."

Granada Hills senior Cassandra Fisbeck, the third-place finisher in singles at last year's Individual tournament, beat sophomore Katie Vincent by the same score at the No. 2 spot. 

"It hurt so bad," Vincent said, referring to a painful shoulder injury she has had all season. "I'd never played her, but I checked her [ranking] out and saw she's beaten players who have beaten me, so it wasn't a big surprise. I just wish we could've won."

Granada Hills Coach Simon Robertshaw split up the doubles team of Analyssa Tallas and Samantha Nuno to bolster his four singles spots for the City playoffs and the strategy worked as both players won their matches Monday. They took the doubles title at Individuals last year and are seeded No. 1 in this season's tournament.

"Palisades was deeper than I thought, but the difference was the big guns at the top of our lineup," said Robertshaw, whose team won its fourth straight team title and 10th overall and has eight starters returning next year. "Analyssa in particular picked a good time to play really well. By putting our best doubles team in singles we felt we had a good chance to sweep singles, leaving us with three No. 2 doubles teams."

Senior Jessie Corneli played Tallas' older sister Alexandra (the back-to-back City Individual singles champion now at Gonzaga) at No. 1 singles in the semifinals her sophomore year, but she had never played the younger Tallas before Monday's 6-0, 6-1 loss in the No. 3 spot.

"I looked at it as just another match and thought 'Let me just play as well as I can,'" said Corneli, who lost for the first time since falling to last year's Individal singles runner-up Yvonne Likomanova of Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies in the Dolphins' Western League opener back on Sept. 21. "She was no stronger than Yvonne. She's not a heavy hitter but she used a ton of topspin. There were a lot of long rallies that got a little nerve racking."

Sophomore Samantha Nuno notched Granada Hills' first point with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over freshman Izzy Guterson at No. 4 singles. Guterson celebrated her 14th birthday last Saturday, making her the Dolphins' youngest player by two days. Teammates sang "Happy Birthday" while awaiting the awards presentation, during which players on both teams were presented medals by their coaches.

Highlighting the day for the Dolphins was their No. 1 doubles duo of Perri Zaret and Julie Takakjian, which capped off an undefeated team season with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over another senior-sophomore pairing, Emily Kliaoakkadej and Dianne Sarmiento. Palisades' top tandem is seeded second in the Individual tournament. Since joining forces in the second match of the season, Zaret and Takakjian have been victorious in all 14 sets together and have won 94 of 100 total games.

"We felt a little more pressure to win today, but we are good at keeping our composure," said Zaret, who showed why she is one of the Dolphins' captains. "We knew that in order for the team to win we had to do our part."

The longest match and the last to finish was at No. 2 doubles, where Palisades' Katie Pfannkuche and Jesse Zand outlasted another junior-freshman pairing in Granada Hills' Fumika Kotobuki and Meena Janerkrabuanhad. Despite stumbling in the second set, the Dolphins' duo regrouped and built a 5-0 lead in the third before closing it out three games later, unaware the Highlanders had already secured the four points needed for victory. 

"Jesse really pumped us up and without that we wouldn't have been able to do it," Pfannkuche said. "We won the first set so easily that our energy dropped in the second set, I was missing my serves and we got down on ourselves, but we both really wanted it. We had no clue about the [team] score. Passan wouldn't tell us."

Guterson was impressed with her teammates' three-set triumph.

"Jesse and Katie are such an amazing team," she said. "They played really well and deserved to win."

Though they lost the match, the Dolphins stayed in an ebullient mood afterwards, knowing that they had done their best against a more seasoned team in the midst of a dynasty. Palisades still holds the City record for supremacy, winning the last of its 20 titles in 2007.

"Last year when we lost in the semifinals, all the doubles won and the singles didn't and we went into this year saying we're all in this together so it doesn't matter who wins or loses," Pfannkuche said. "I love this team. I'm already looking forward to next year."

Senior co-captain Emily Wettleson and junior partner Melody Wilkenfeld had the misfortune of facing Granada Hills' unbalanced No. 3 tandem and lost, 6-1, 6-3. Befitting the camaraderie this school of Dolphins has formed, the rest of the team lined the fences and cheered Monday's starters on. With all but three players returning, the future of Palisades' program is bright. 

"We wanted to win this for the seniors and it's disappointing to get this far and lose, but at the same time it gives us something to shoot for," Passan said. "If you don't like losing, do something about it. Granada Hills is a young team too and almost everyone's coming back, so we'll be seeing all those girls again. The motivation is there."

MATCH SUMMARY

CITY CHAMPIONSHIP

Finals

Granada Hills 5, Palisades 2

SINGLES

(1) Diana Silvers, Palisades, lost to Sarah Nuno, 6-1, 6-0.

(2) Katie Vincent, Palisades, lost to Cassandra Fisbeck, 6-1, 6-0.

(3) Jessie Corneli, Palisades, lost to Analyssa Tallas, 6-0, 6-1.

(4) Izzy Guterson, Palisades, lost to Samantha Nuno, 6-0, 6-0.

DOUBLES

(1) Julie Takakjian-Perri Zaret, Palisades, d. Emily Kliaoakkadej-Dianne Sarmiento, 6-0, 6-1.

(2) Jesse Zand-Katie Pfannkuche, Palisades, d. Meena Janerkrabuanhad-Fumika Kotobuki, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

(3) Emily Wettleson-Melody Wilkenfeld, Palisades, lost to Abigail Kur-Amy Shigenaga, 6-1, 6-3.

Records: Palisades 14-1-1; Granada Hills 14-0.