Yet to Meet Their Match : Peninsula Girls’ Tennis Team Continues to Steamroll Opponents

The three best players on the Peninsula High girls’ tennis team were quietly chatting at a small table in the shade at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach last week.

Teammates were competing against Corona del Mar on nearby courts, but these girls paid no attention. They were just waiting to play the last of their three sets and go home.

Janet Lee, Nicole London and Amanda Basica were hardly excited about the Panthers winning their 65th consecutive match, a streak that dates back to when the school opened in 1991 and has since been extended to 67 matches, including 19 in a row this year.

Lee, London and Basica are three top U.S. junior players who have played in tournaments in Australia, Italy and France. They have each played in the U.S. Open. They plan on turning pro.

So why do they even bother playing for Peninsula?

“Credits,” Basica said. “We need to take P.E. and this is a lot better than school gym.”

But as they fulfill their diploma requirements, London said it’s difficult to get enthusiastic about dominating unranked high school players.

“You’re happy you win,” London said. “But it’s not like ‘Yea, I won Wimbledon!’ ”

That’s something these players might be able to say someday.

Lee, a 17-year old senior, held the No. 11 position in the final U.S. 18-and-under junior rankings by the United States Tennis Assn. She practices six days a week with Robert Lansdorp, who has been her personal coach since she was eight. Occasionally, Lee will hit balls with former pros Tracy Austin and Elliot Teltcher.

After graduation, Lee said she plans to take a year to practice and play tournaments as an amateur before deciding whether to play college tennis or turn pro. She has been heavily recruited by Division I schools.

“It’s hard to have to play tennis and do school at the same time,” said the 5-foot-7 Lee. “I probably need more time to train for the pros.”

This was made clear to her after losing to Tami Whitlinger, 6-1, 6-1, in the first round of this year’s U.S. Open in the pro division.

Lee also played in the junior bracket of the Open, but lost in the first round. It was her third year playing in the Open’s junior division.

“My first year it was really exciting,” said Lee, who won the Southern Section singles title last year and helped Peninsula win its second team championship. “It was still exciting (this year), but by the second week, it started getting to me with the whole place and the environment. There was a lot of people.”

That didn’t surprise Peninsula co-coach Tom Cox, who said Lee is quiet on and off the court.

“She’s pretty reserved,” said Cox, who has coached three years at Peninsula after coaching 10 years at Rolling Hills. “She isn’t as vocal as some of the kids.”

London, like Lee, is usually subdued, rarely showing her feelings.

“The first time I saw any emotion out of London was when she lost a week or so ago,” said Cox, 50. “She seemed a little upset with that.”

London and Lee spent their freshman year at Palos Verdes before that school, Miraleste and Rolling Hills combined in 1991 to become Peninsula. The merger of three quality tennis programs largely accounts for Peninsula’s success. Besides the success of the three singles players, the Panthers’ doubles teams usually prevail. Doubles teams include Alyson Reeves and Jennifer Cohen, Amanda Augustus and Amber Basica, Candace Corette and Christine Niho and the twin combination of Shana and Alyson Gray, all of whom are ranked in Southern California.

Still, the Panthers, who have five 18-0 shutouts this season and have not lost more than five sets in a match in three years, would prefer to be tested.

“That would be fun,” said London, 17, who will attend either USC or Stanford.

It would be especially enjoyable for their opponents, who consider winning a point against the top three players an accomplishment.

“A couple of games went to deuce and that was like, ‘Wow!’ ” Corona del Mar’s Megan Wachtler said of her loss to Lee.

Leanne Colton, a Corona del Mar junior, managed to squeak out one game from Basica.

“I was really excited,” Colton said. “All of our other matches are pretty equal, so once in a while it’s good to see how they play and where they’ll hit their shots.”

As for strategy, Cox and co-coach Jim Hanson usually stay silent, one of the reasons the players like them. And because some of the players have busy tournament and private workout schedules, the coaches allow them to miss team practices and attend matches only once a week.

Cox and Hanson know their jobs.

“It’s more organizing them and keeping them happy,” Cox said of the 22 varsity players.

But with their team’s superiority, its harder keeping other teams content.

“I’ve had a team or two decline to play us next year,” said Cox, a math teacher at Peninsula. “I can see both sides of it. Some coaches have the philosophy that they want to play against the best players out there. But the other side is, do you want to bring your kids in to get massacred?”

Corona del Mar Coach Julie Slattery said it was a great opportunity to play Peninsula, despite the embarrassing final score of 17-1.

“I feel this team can beat most college teams,” Slattery said of the Panthers, whose regular season ends today at Beverly Hills.

Basica, a 15-year old sophomore, has almost ruled out attending college. She is even considering leaving high school after her junior year to turn pro.

In the final 1992 national 16-and-under rankings, Basica was No. 1. This year she advanced to the third round of the U.S. Open’s junior division. Along with London, Basica is a member of the U.S. Junior National team.

She said the pressure of the pro circuit won’t become overwhelming.

“It has a lot to do with your parents,” Basica said. “Mine are pretty laid-back and don’t push me too hard.”

Cox realizes the attraction of fame and money, but doubts whether leaving high school is the right decision.

“(Basica) would be probably better off finishing up her high school career,” he said. “But the other side of that is she’s out of school so much anyway. If you’re staying in high school for some kind of high school experience, you’re going to miss it anyway.”

As for Peninsula’s top three players, it’s doubtful they will miss playing on their high school team.

“It would be a lot more fun if the matches were close, if it was a challenge,” Basica said. “It gets, you could say, a little boring.”