TENNIS / SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION II CHAMPIONSHIP : Harvard Not Quite Good Enough

Harry Salamandra, Harvard-Westlake High’s tennis coach, insists he wasn’t outsmarted by Sunny Hills Coach Steve White. So he offered another reason for his team’s 11-7 loss to Sunny Hills Wednesday in Southern Section Division II boys’ tennis finals at Sunny Hills Racquet Club.

“They did exactly what we had planned,” Salamandra said. “We just got outplayed.”

Sunny Hills (22-0) has outplayed quite a few teams this season. Harvard-Westlake’s four-point loss is the closest anyone has come to defeating the Lancers this season.

Harvard-Westlake (17-3) had won five of the last six 2-A titles before moving up to Division II this season. Sunny Hills won the Division 3-A title, now Division II, in 1991.

“We have a good team, but they have a few more players than us,” Salamandra said.

Sunny Hills’ depth allowed White to drop Dave Robbins, his best singles player, into doubles. Robbins teamed with Jason Nevadowsky at No. 1 doubles to win all three matches. Nevadowsky’s usual partner, Juno Kuan, moved to No. 1 singles and won two of three matches.

“I think our coach made a good decision,” Nevadowsky said. “We couldn’t have gotten any more in singles anyway.”

Not with Phillip Tseng playing No. 1 singles for Harvard-Westlake.

Tseng, who lost in the semifinals of the section individual tournament, gave Harvard-Westlake its only three singles victories by beating Kuan, 6-1, Joseph Gilbert, 6-2, and Kevin Kim, 6-3.

The Wolverines’ doubles teams could not pick up the slack as they won only four of nine matches.

“I thought we’d get better performances from our No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams,” Salamandra said.

But Aaron Cohen and David Brown won only one of three matches at No. 2 doubles and Wilt Pack and Farbad Nasseri were swept at No. 3 doubles.