Southern Section Tennis Playoffs : Dana Hills Ready to Defend 4-A Title Against Westlake

The Dana Hills High School tennis team, unchallenged in the Southern Section playoffs so far, will try for its second consecutive 4-A title when it plays Westlake today at 3:15 at Thousand Oaks High.

Dana Hills (20-3) is the top-seeded team in the playoffs and has been top-ranked in the 4-A all season. Westlake (19-4) is seeded second.

Depth at all positions has been Dana Hills’ strongest weapon this season.

The Dolphins are led in singles by brothers Ben and Chris Stevens. Ben Stevens plays at the No. 1 spot and Chris plays at No. 3. Estaban Saba is No. 2.

Tim Potter and Neel Grover play at No. 1 doubles. Grover teamed with Stan Sanders to advance to the championship of the Southern Section individual doubles tournament Saturday before losing to Chris and Jeff Belloli of Servite.

Grover and Sanders are a formidable duo, but Dana Hills Coach Art Jenkins splits them up to form a stronger No. 3 doubles team, where Sanders plays with Kurt Reiner.

Bill Shipman and Kurt Briggeman are the No. 2 doubles team.

Dana Hills has swept aside its playoff opponents. In last week’s semifinal, Canyon gave the Dolphins their closest match before losing, 12-6. Before that, Dana Hills hadn’t lost more than 3 of the possible 18 sets in the playoffs.

Westlake counters with exceptional singles play from Darin Pleasant.

Rob Light, Westlake’s No. 2 singles player, is sidelined with chicken pox. He has missed the team’s last three matches.

Todd Robinson and Mike Studebaker will try to counter Potter and Grover at No. 1 doubles. Mark Kapczynski and Kelly Bumbarger are the Warriors’ No. 2 doubles team.

In the 3-A final:

Los Alamitos (22-2) vs. San Marino (20-0) at Lacy Park in San Marino at 3:15 p.m.--The first- and second-seeded teams when the playoffs began will meet for the title.

San Marino, top-seeded, defeated Laguna Beach, 10-8, to advance to the championship match.

Los Alamitos, seeded second, had advanced to the semifinals three consecutive times, but this is the Griffins’ first championship appearance.

Los Alamitos has been bolstered by Riva Da Silva, a senior exchange student from South Africa, who is the Griffins’ leading singles player.

“It’s a pretty similar team to last year’s,” Kevin McClintic, Los Alamitos coach, said. “Riva’s better than the No. 1 (singles player) last year. We’ve gained a little strength at the top end of the singles.”

McClintic was a former singles standout at Los Alamitos in the late 1970s.

In last Thursday’s semifinal match against Woodbridge, Da Silva swept his sets, 6-0, 6-2, 6-2, helping the Griffins beat the Warriors, 11-7.