TENNIS : Bright Future for Palos Verdes Tennis Team

If this season was any indication of what is to come, we haven’t heard the last of the Palos Verdes High girls’ tennis team.

A young and talented Palos Verdes team unseated two-time defending champion Corona del Mar in the CIF-Southern Section 4-A Division championship match Tuesday at the Claremont Tennis Club.

Palos Verdes (21-0) was awarded the victory on games, 77-67, after the match ended in a set tie, 9-9.

If the solid core of returning players remain in school, Palos Verdes has a bright future.

“We’re looking a lot like Corona del Mar did a couple of years ago,” Palos Verdes Coach Kathy Ross said. “We are going to be (championship) contenders for the next couple of years.”

Ross may have valid reasons for believing so strongly in her program’s future.

The top Palos Verdes player is a 14-year-old freshman, Nicole London. And the team has three other freshman and a sophomore returning.

London, who is ranked sixth nationally in the 18-and-under division, won two of three sets against Corona del Mar. Her only loss was to the No. 1-ranked 18-and-under player in the country, Keri Phebus.

The other freshmen include Janet Lee, ranked No. 1 nationally in the 14-and-under division, Jenny Cohen and Allyson Reeves.

Lee and senior Melanie Fountain each won two of three singles sets. Both of their losses were to Phebus.

Palos Verdes’ doubles teams won only three of nine sets but won enough games to help the team earn a victory.

The top doubles team, seniors Polly Hackathorne and Loren Lotesta, lost all three of their sets. But the freshman team of Cohen-Reeves won two of three sets and the team of senior Marion Sampras, sister of U.S. Open champion Pete Sampras, and sophomore Kelly Olsen won one of three sets.

Just to put in perspective the Palos Verdes’ victory over Corona del Mar consider this:

The last time a Palos Verdes girls’ tennis team reached the finals was in 1986, when four players on the current team were in fifth grade, one was in sixth and the other four were in eighth grade.

So maybe naivete, combined with overall team talent, best explains how Palos Verdes has quickly stepped up into the forefront of a high school tennis scene dominated by Corona del Mar the past three seasons.

Certainly, Palos Verdes, the top-seeded team in the tournament, showed intestinal fortitude in defeating Corona del Mar (22-3), a more experienced team. But Palos Verdes’ victory wasn’t entirely unexpected.

The Sea Kings defeated Corona del Mar, 12-6, in a nonleague match earlier this season.

But this time Corona del Mar didn’t go quietly.

“(Corona del Mar) wouldn’t come all the way to the finals and concede the match, we knew that,” Ross said. “They have too good of players to hand it to us on a platter.”

In fact, it was Palos Verdes that almost crumbled under pressure.

After the Sea Kings took a 6-3 set advantage midway through the second round, Corona del Mar won three sets to tie it, 6-6. The teams split the next six sets to finish in a tie.

“I definitely didn’t want it to come down this close though, for my health,” Ross said.

The only worry for Ross is how to keep the young players in the program.

“There is always a chance Nicole (London) will turn pro,” Ross said. “It is hard to say.”