Taft Repeats City Title With a Pair of Aces : Girls’ tennis: Pastorini and Feldman remain undefeated as Toreadors down Palisades, 6-1.

With singles players Julia Feldman and Brahna Pastorini leading the way, the Taft High girls’ tennis team won its second consecutive City Section 4-A Division team championship Thursday.

And after the top-seeded Toreadors capped a 16-0 season with a 6-1 victory over second-seeded Palisades, Feldman and Pastorini wore victorious smiles.

Feldman and Pastorini, both undefeated this season, routed their opponents at No. 1 and 2 singles at The Racquet Centre. But when talk turned to their individual matches, the smiles disappeared. The straight-set victories were miserable, not memorable, Feldman and Pastorini said.

By the second game of her 6-2, 6-1 victory, Feldman was arguing with Bentleigh Borgeson over in and out calls. Throughout the match, Feldman exchanged glares with her opponent.

“I think she was trying to intimidate me with her line calls,” said Feldman, a hard-hitting junior. “I decided it would be a good idea to get a line judge.”

Borgeson also kept Feldman (15-0) off balance with an assortment of lobs and drop shots, but that only made an angry Feldman’s blood run hotter. And when she broke Borgeson’s service to pull ahead, 5-2, in the first set, Feldman hit a passing forehand so hard a plume of dust flew from the ball on impact.

The line judge Feldman requested proved useful. Borgeson, after being warned, was assessed one point in the second set for making excessive noise with her sneakers while Feldman served. And on match point, the line judge overruled Borgeson’s out call on Feldman’s return.

On the next court, Pastorini--a big, powerful player--was pasting Shana Miller against the fence with shots from her own base line. One could tell from a distance Pastorini, who beat Miller, 6-0, 6-0, was hitting the ball hard by the echoes that rang from her court each time she had an easy ball.

But Pastorini (16-0) was still queasy from a bout with food poisoning Wednesday night and unable to charge the net because of a bad ankle.

“I just played through the pain,” said Pastorini, the defending City champion in singles. “I just concentrated on getting the ball back and not wasting any shots because I didn’t know how long I was going to last.”

Palisades (13-3) pitted its second-best singles player, Carolyn Lee, against Taft’s No. 3 player in hopes of winning a mismatch. The strategy failed as Ravid Levy trounced Lee, 6-0, 6-1.

Taft clinched it second title in a row when its No. 2 doubles team of Lydia Daniller and Marissa Parker beat Jennie Wilson and Allison Fischer, 6-2, 6-3.

Palisades and Taft have played for the last six City titles, with the Dolphins winning four.

Division 3-A

Aida Orejel, South Gate’s No. 1 singles player, defeated Merry Arrogante, 6-4, 6-4, to clinch her team’s City title, 4-3, over Carson.