Short-Handed Miraleste Loses to Palos Verdes in Tennis Final

Everything happened the way Coach Jim Hanson of Rancho Palos Verdes Miraleste had said it would in the Southern Section girls’ 4-A high school tennis playoffs.

Hanson had predicted that defending champion Miraleste and Palos Verdes would advance to the final for the fourth straight year, and they did. And he had said that Palos Verdes would win because Miraleste would be missing two top players, who would be playing in the Junior National Indoor Tournament.

He was right again, as Palos Verdes won the 4-A title Tuesday at the West End Tennis & Racquet Club in Torrance, 12-6. Palos Verdes finished with a 24-2 record, and Miraleste a 20-1 mark.

“There is a sense of dissatisfaction to beat them without (No. 4 singles player Kim) Po and (No. 2 Krista) Amend,” Palos Verdes Coach John Fullerton said. “We wanted to play them full strength. We were short one, too.

“But this is what we get, and that’s fine with me.”

Both schools had asked that the match be moved to another day, when both teams would have been at full strength, but the Southern Section refused.

“It didn’t seem like such a major event that they couldn’t change the date,” Fullerton said.

Hanson was disappointed but gave credit to Palos Verdes.

“It’s not PV’s vault, it’s the CIF office,” Hanson said. “That’s not fair to them. They won.”

In the 3-A final, San Marino, fielding a team with no seniors, won its third title in four years with a convincing 13-5 win over Santa Ana Mater Dei. San Marino also won the 1983 title by routing Mater Dei, 14-4.

San Marino finished with a record of 23-0, and Mater Dei finished 24-1.

In the 2-A match, Indio jumped out to a 6-0 lead and ended up with a 15-3 shocker over two-time defending champion Westminster La Quinta (23-2).

“The score, I think, tells you who was the best team,” Indio Coach George Areu said. The Rajahs (22-1) had to get up at 3:30 a.m. to make it in time for the start of their match at 10 a.m.

Pasadena Mayfield won the 1-A title, beating Thousand Oaks La Reina, 10-8.