Peninsula’s Net Result: A Trip to Magic Kingdom : Tennis: The players earn a just reward after completing a 24-0 season with 18-0 rout of Dana Hills in the Southern Section Division I championship.

Where did members of the Peninsula High girls’ tennis team go to celebrate their 24-0 record and Southern Section Division I championship?

Disneyland, it turns out.

After Tuesday’s 18-0 victory over Dana Hills in the division final at the Claremont Tennis Club, Peninsula took a trip to the Magic Kingdom. The players may have found navigating the freeway system from Claremont to Anaheim a bigger challenge than playing Dana Hills.

Led by singles players Nicole London, Janet Lee and Amanda Basica, Peninsula so dominated Dana Hills that at one point it seemed the Panthers would win more sets than Dana Hills would win games.

“Our second nine (players) could win the championship,” Peninsula Co-Coach Jim Hanson said. “It’s just how deep the (talent) level is.”

South Torrance tennis Coach Dave Corman, who worked Tuesday’s divisional final for the Southern Section management staff, said he thinks Peninsula is competing at the wrong level.

“They’re so good that they could be ranked in the top 10 collegiately,” Corman said.

Peninsula co-coach Tom Cox, who was on the losing end of an 18-0 match against powerful Santa Barbara when he coached the Rolling Hills girls’ team, compared the current Peninsula team with last year’s unbeaten (24-0) Division I champions.

“We might have been a little stronger than in ‘91,” Cox said. “We lost one player, but we gained (freshman) Amanda Basica, and everyone else improved a little bit. This year we’re loaded with talent. Down the line, who’s to say? It certainly isn’t going to keep up the way it is.”

On the road to the final, Peninsula defeated Thousand Oaks, 15-3, El Toro, 15-3, and Santa Barbara, 17-1. The Panthers had beaten Dana Hills, 18-0, earlier this season in a nonleague match, so Tuesday’s outcome was hardly a surprise.

Clara Chun, one of only two seniors to play for Peninsula in Tuesday’s final, teamed with sophomore Shana Gray to win the final doubles match that clinched the shutout.

“We expected to win,” said Chun, who hopes to continue playing competitively in college, possibly at Harvard. “It’s a challenge trying to win 18-0. We didn’t want to let the team down.”

While Chun, who played for Palos Verdes High during her sophomore year, has been a member of three Southern Section champions, her partner was celebrating her first championship.

“I worked really hard to get on the varsity,” Gray said. “I feel that I have to win to keep up with the team. It’s exciting to win that big.”

The Chun/Gray team wasn’t assured of playing in the final until it won a round-robin playoff with teammates for the third doubles spot.

“The most competition we get is from our teammates,” Gray said.

Chun believes that a decision by the coaching staff earlier this season helped create a stronger squad. Instead of fielding two separate teams, Hanson and Cox decided to form one large team, which gave most players the opportunity to play in at least one match a week.

“Last year there was an A team and a B team,” Chun said. “It wasn’t that great and created a lot of rivalries. This year, we are one big team, and we’re more unified.”

London, rated No. 3 in the nation by the U.S. Tennis Assn., will compete in the Continental Cup and the Orange Bowl tournament in Florida next month. Although the quality of competition she faces in a high school tournament doesn’t usually challenge her, London enjoys the experience.

“This is fun,” she said. “Usually I’m playing for myself. Now I play for the team. I can play more relaxed.”

She doesn’t relax enough to feel sorry for Dana Hills, however.

“When you’re in a sport,” she said, “you can’t feel sorry.”