SOUTHERN SECTION 4-A GIRLS’ TENNIS PLAYOFFS : Palos Verdes Freshmen Prove Too Tough for Corona del Mar

The tears on Keri Phebus’ face told the story: Corona del Mar is no longer on top of the high school tennis world.

Phebus and her Corona del Mar teammates were knocked off their perch by top-seeded Palos Verdes in the Southern Section Division 4-A girls’ tennis finals Tuesday at the Claremont Tennis Club.

The teams tied 9-9 in sets, but Palos Verdes won on games, 77-67.

The victory by the young Palos Verdes squad--it had four freshmen in its lineup, two in singles and two in doubles--did not catch many by surprise, not even Corona del Mar’s coach, Gary Salazar.

“Everything went the way we thought,” Salazar said. “A couple of games got away from us we thought we would win. Palos Verdes is a fine team.”

Palos Verdes, which entered the final match with a 20-0 record, overpowered the two-time defending champions in the singles sets despite a sweep by Phebus.

Phebus won her sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-0, but freshmen Nicole London and Janet Lee carried Palos Verdes by winning four of their six singles sets, all at 6-0. The new champions won 43 of 65 singles games.

London and Phebus battled in the match’s best singles action, with the Corona del Mar standout winning, 6-4. London, in fact, led, 3-2, and evened the set, 4-4, before Phebus wore her down with excellent passing shots to London’s backhand side.

The performance by London impressed her coach at Palos Verdes, Kathy Ross.

“Nicole is definitely butting the heels of Phebus right now,” Ross said.

However, even though London, Lee and senior Melanie Fountain were controlling the singles sets for Palos Verdes, Corona del Mar (21-3) was giving the Ocean League champions all they could handle in the doubles sets.

Corona del Mar won six of the nine doubles sets.