Palisades Girls Keep Tennis Title

Palisades High School won its fourth straight City 4-A girls’ tennis title and ninth in 16 years Tuesday with a 6-1 victory over Western League rival Hamilton at the Racquet Centre in North Hollywood.

In the 3-A, Carson rebounded from losing the first three singles matches to beat fellow Marine League team Gardena, 4-3.

Palisades opened its title defense with a singles victory by Heather Willens. She had won the doubles title and finished second in singles at the USTA National Indoor Championships Monday at Detroit, arrived at LAX at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday and attended school all day before going three games with Sonja Panajotovic of Hamilton. The scores were 6-1, 6-7, 7-5.

“She was pretty gutsy out there today,” Palisades Coach Bud Kling said. “She was real tired. Sonja is real smart and a crafty player, and that’s exactly what Heather didn’t want. Sonja knew she was tired and tried to work it to her advantage.”