HIGH SCHOOL TENNIS / CITY CHAMPIONSHIPS : Taft’s Pastorini Defeats Teammate

Brahna Pastorini’s 6-4, 6-1 tennis victory over Woodland Hills Taft High teammate Julia Feldman Wednesday at the Racquet Centre in Studio City wasn’t only for City individual superiority. It was also for school bragging rights.

“There have been doubts expressed by some people around campus whether I really deserved to be the No. 1 player at Taft instead of Julia,” said Pastorini, daughter of former NFL quarterback Dan Pastorini.

It looked as if there were reasons for those doubts when second-seeded Feldman broke Pastorini’s serve in the first game and raced to a 3-1 first-set lead. But the top-seeded Pastorini became aggressive from the baseline and won 11 of the next 13 games to take the title.

In a battle of players who began the final with 20-0 records, Feldman’s lack of steadiness was her downfall. She committed eight double faults.

“I told people all year, I really have two No. 1 singles players,” said Taft Coach Marvin Jones, whose squad had earlier won the City team title, thanks largely to the play of Pastorini, a junior, and Feldman, a sophomore. “People were asking me who I wanted to win. I just told them I wanted Taft to win.”

Taft could not add the doubles title to its singles and team accomplishments, however. Top-seeded Torri Ellman and Melissa Cherin of Palisades made sure of that with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Taft’s second-seeded duo of Astra Ramyead and Alicia Whelan.

It was a sweet victory for Ellman, who had lost the 1991 doubles title with Nancy Kwon, 4-6, 7-6 (11-9), 7-5, to Stephanie Fontaine and Carrie Greenberg of Taft, missing several match points in the process.