Taft Tandem Reach Girls’ Tennis Final

Stephanie Fontaine and Carrie Greenberg might not have been able to bring Taft High’s girls team a City Section team tennis title in four trips to the final. But the Toreadors’ top doubles team stayed alive for an individual doubles title with a victory in the City girls’ semifinals Tuesday at The Racquet Centre in Studio City.

Fontaine and Greenberg earned some revenge by beating Melissa Cherin and Gina Won of Palisades, 6-2, 6-4, to qualify for Thursday’s 1 p.m. final at The Racquet Centre. Won had teamed with Karen Manson to beat Fontaine and Greenberg, 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, in the City team final Nov. 14, a win that helped Palisades defeat Taft for the fourth consecutive year in the championship round.

Fontaine, who won the City doubles title with senior Pam Klosterman last year, was excited to reach the final again. “We’re a new team, but we’ve worked just as hard to get there,” Fontaine said.

Fontaine and Greenberg, the City’s top-seeded team, will draw another Palisades duo in the final. Torri Ellman and Nancy Kwon, the No. 2-seeded team, notched a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Emily Chiong and Marites De Los Reyes of Eagle Rock in the other semifinal.

After a slow start proved disastrous in the team final, Fontaine and Greenberg said they were determined to get a quick jump on Cherin and Won on Tuesday. Using a strong net game, solid overheads and fine shot placement, the Taft team rolled to a 6-2, 4-1 lead. But Cherin and Won grabbed some momentum back by winning the next three games to even the second set.

“We got too cocky,” Greenberg said. “We were not concentrating like we were earlier.”

Facing the prospect of a third set, Fontaine and Greenberg finished off the match with some good serving and returning to win the next two games and the second set.

Taft’s Brahna Pastorini made a big turnaround in singles but still fell short in a 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 semifinal loss to top-seeded Sirsa Shekim of Palisades. Shekim’s steady play allowed her to take a one-set lead, but Pastorini rebounded by putting more pop on her serves and by changing the pace of her ground strokes to win the second set and take a 2-0 lead in the third set.

Having broken Shekim’s serve four consecutive times, Pastorini appeared to be on her way to the final. But Shekim suddenly regained her service prowess and broke Pastorini’s serve three times in the final 10 games to pull out the win.