Kennedy Slips Past Dorsey in Tennis; Chatsworth Falls

Some fancy footwork by Kennedy High Coach Craig Raub helped him evade a group of tennis players Friday and foil their plans to soak him with a celebratory bucket of ice water.

Minutes earlier, Kennedy barely eluded a dousing by Dorsey, winning its second consecutive City Section 3-A Division tennis championship, 15-14 1/2, at the Racquet Centre of Universal City.

Chatsworth did not fare as well in the 4-A final, losing to top-seeded University, 19-10 1/2, also at the Racquet Centre.

Kennedy (17-2) had trouble scoring points in singles, but the Golden Cougars eked out the victory by winning six of nine doubles sets.

Raub, whose top-seeded team boasts five returning players, expected a tough match.

“When you come back with the same team, everybody says, ‘Hey, mail the schedule in,’ ” he said. “Well, it doesn’t work that way.”

Phil Yanov of Camarillo, who has coached tennis at Dorsey for 10 seasons, said he plans to leave the school this year to work closer to home. That, he said, made this loss particularly disappointing.

“I expected us to win by three or four points,” said Yanov, whose team finished 15-2 and was seeded second. “It was going to be close.

“I’m just sad we lost because it was close enough to win.”

Perhaps the most impressive Kennedy showing came from its No. 1 doubles team, Josh Etting and Che Naveja, which swept its sets, 6-2, 6-2, 6-0, in the round-robin format.

“Everyone rose to the occasion,” Etting said. “We started out a little slow but everyone picked it up at the end.”

Like Kennedy, unseeded Chatsworth (18-1) weathered University’s doubles teams, but the Chancellors were overwhelmed in singles, losing 13 of 16 sets. University’s Ross Loel, Jon Kelly, and Jason Clark are among the final four singles players in the individual semifinals, which will take place Monday at the Racquet Centre.

Earlier in the season, Chatsworth defeated University, 4-3, but the Warriors were missing three top players.

The dominance of University (16-1), therefore, was no shock to Chatsworth Coach Joe Santellano.

“They didn’t pull anything on us,” he said. “We knew what we had to do to beat them, and they were too tough.”

The Chancellors’ play, however, impressed some University players--even Loel, who swept his four sets, losing just four games.

“I think they did a lot better than I thought they would,” Loel said.

Tony Joseph and Philip Tietjen, Chatsworth’s No. 1 tandem, won two sets, as did the No. 3 team of Fred Weiner and Marcus Yee.

John Butiu and Mike Carone of Chatsworth won one set.