Southern Section 4-A Tennis Championships : Dana Hills Finds Winning Second Straight Title Easy

The victory didn’t exactly come as a surprise. After all, Dana Hills High School had beaten Westlake earlier in the regular season. But the margin of victory in Wednesday’s Southern Section 4-A tennis championship made the Dolphins’ second consecutive title especially sweet.

“I don’t even remember last year,” Dana Hills Coach Art Jenkins said after the 15-3 victory.

“Obviously this was a treat. It was each player’s goal to win the title again. They’re going to feel great today and probably for the rest of the year. This victory is something they’ll never forget.”

Chris Stevens and Estaban Saba provided upset victories in singles, and the three Dolphin doubles teams maintained their perfect records in playoff matches.

The top-seeded Dolphins have defeated Westlake three times in a row over the last two seasons, including twice in the playoffs.

Dana Hills (21-3) beat Westlake, 10-8, in last year’s quarterfinals and 11-7 in a nonleague match earlier this season. But neither team expected such a one-sided score in Wednesday’s final at Thousand Oaks High.

Darin Pleasant, ranked No. 32 in 18-and-under by the Southern California Tennis Assn., won the three matches for Westlake (19-5).

“We were hoping to prevent their top two singles players from sweeping,” Jenkins said. “I was confident that we would win a majority of our doubles matches.”

Chris Stevens put an end to Jenkins’ worries by beating Westlake’s No. 2 singles player, Andy Devore, 6-2, in his first match.

“I had beaten him before, and I was confident I could do it again,” Stevens said. “I realized it was a big match for us, and I tried to hustle after every ball.”

Neel Grover and Tim Potter defeated Westlake’s top doubles team of Todd Robinson and Mike Studebaker, 7-5, to give Dana Hills a 5-1 lead after the first rotation of the round-robin format.

Robinson and Studebaker had lost only one other doubles match during the playoffs and were undefeated in Marmonte League competition.

Dana Hills received two more victories in singles and swept doubles to clinch the match during the second rotation. Saba defeated Devore, 6-2, and Ryan Gately teamed up with Kurt Bruggeman to beat Conrad Lai and Buddy Turl, 7-5, for the deciding point.

“Beating Devore was a big victory for us. And the next win against Devore that was the key to the match,” Jenkins said. “My goodness, we didn’t lose to anyone but Pleasant.”

Devore, who is ranked 52 in 16-and-under by the SCTA, was beaten in his final set by Ben Stevens, 6-3.

“I had no desire in my final match,” Devore said. “I didn’t perform well today. None of us did except Pleasant. I wouldn’t say we were cocky, but we did come into the match a little overconfident. We lost all the close matches. They may have wanted it a little more than we did.”

With a sweep of the doubles matches, Dana Hills extended its consecutive sets without a loss mark to 36.

Part of the success of the doubles team is due to Gately, who was reinstated for the final two matches of the season after being declared academically ineligible.

“I don’t think he (Gately) is our best player,” Jenkins said. “There isn’t a best player on this team. But it was an emotionally lift to have him in the lineup.”

This is the third year in a row Dana Hills reached the title match, but Jenkins said he doesn’t expect Dana Hills to become a tennis dynasty.

“I think it’s hard enough to win one title,” Jenkins said. “It takes one injury or one bad streak to end a season. And tennis is full of injuries. And next year, there will no longer be a 5-A division. It will be much more difficult to win with all those tough programs.”

But then, Jenkins didn’t expect to win two in a row.