Boys’ tennis: Beverly Hills well-equipped to contend for CIF title

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Beverly Hills’ resume the last three seasons reads like this: two trips to the finals and one to the semifinals. The only thing missing is the word championship.

That could all change in May because Coach Mike Margolin thinks that, top to bottom, this might be the strongest lineup he’s had in his 10 seasons.

‘I have all three of my singles players back as well as my No. 1 doubles team,’ said Margolin, whose team has reached at least the quarterfinals every year of his tenure. ‘The key will be how well the bottom of our lineup performs. Right now I’ve got six players competing for four spots.’

The Normans’ singles threesome is formidable, led by sophomore Daniel Ho (ranked in the top 10 in Southern California in the Boys 16s). Junior Gary Parizher, also highly ranked, returns at No. 2 and senior David Vizner, who might be No. 1 on most teams, is a lock at the No. 3 position.

A sign that Beverly Hills has improved over the last 12 months is Wednesday’s result against Mira Costa in the Bay Area Classic. Mira Costa won last year’s meeting, 11-7, but this time the Normans prevailed 12-6. They’ve also won their first two Pioneer League matches by scores of 17-1 and 16-2 over South Torrance and Culver City.

‘Our only loss so far was to a great Corona del Mar team, 10-8, and that was without [No. 1 doubles players] Uday Singh and Ethan Bond,’ Margolin said. ‘If they’d played, there’s a good chance we would’ve won because we were ahead on games.’

Of course, what Margolin and his team want most is to win the Southern Section Division III championship.

-- Steve Galluzzo

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