All Shuffled, 4-A Tennis Title Isn’t in Cards for Grant Girls

Two things seem to happen every year in the City Section girls tennis finals--first the team from Palisades shows up and then their opponent starts doing the Pali Shuffle.

The shuffle is not a dance or a card trick. It is a juggling of lineups by coaches whose teams meet perennially powerful Palisades.

A coach executes the shuffle by having the team’s second, third and fourth-best players compete in doubles, while the No. 1 player competes in singles. A team must win four of seven matches--four singles and three doubles--in order to win the title.

Melva Heinsohn of Grant was the latest coach to fail with the trick. Palisades won its second straight 4--A championship Friday by beating Grant, 6-1, at the Universal Racquet Centre in North Hollywood. The championship was Palisades’ fifth in seven years.

“I thought we had enough to sweep the doubles and take one of the singles,” said Heinsohn, whose team came into the match 15-0. “But, their singles are all-tournament players. They’re all very good.”

Anya Kochoff is the best Palisades player and is rated in the national top 10 in the 18-under division of the United States Tennis Assn. Kochoff lost just two sets all season--none against City competition. She spoiled Grant’s hopes early by beating Rowena Montenegro, the Lancers’ top singles player, 6-0, 6-0.

“People kept telling me how good I would have to play to beat her,” Montenegro said. “I guess I was totally intimidated by her name. I didn’t play as well as I know I can.”

Things continued to go downhill for Grant as Andrea Hart of Palisades defeated Trupti Kumbhojkar, 6-1, 6-1.

Patty Castaneda, who started on the Palisades City championship volleyball team, defeated Lydia Biscan 6-0, 6-0. Alex Bottger, a foreign exchange student from Germany, completed the Palisades singles sweep by defeating Jackie Weitz, 6-0, 6-1.

“The only time that shuffle worked was a few years back when Granada Hills had a great singles player,” Palisades Coach Bud Kling said. “Our team has a lot of depth. I have a lot of confidence in all of my players.”

The Palisades doubles team of Jennifer Norman and Lisa Gordon beat Stacy Kolker and Ann Park, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Olivia Burgos and Sabrina Grassl defeated Jennifer Schneider and Stephanie Sasaki of Grant, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

Debbie Neiter and Christal Polee scored Grant’s only point by defeating Trisha Burns and Jaime Alexander, 7-6, 6-2.

“The Palisades area is conducive to tennis,” said Kling, who also coaches the school’s successful boys team. “Good teams and good players are a tradition.”

Kling said that competition in the City is improving.

“If a tennis club opens up near your school, you begin to get good kids,” Kling said. “That’s why Grant and North Hollywood are consistently strong now. They have a good facility in their area.”

Montenegro and some of her teammates will get a chance to redeem themselves at the Racquet Centre on Thursday when the City Section individual singles and doubles championships begin. Montenegro and Kolker, who play doubles, are seeded third. Neiter and Polee are seeded fourth.