Westerman Leads Palisades to Another Championship

Danny Westerman’s tennis game may have been carved out of his growing up shorter than all his friends, always trying to prove that size was meaningless. His nickname was “Shrimp.”

But Thursday, Westerman used a crushing serve and powerful ground strokes to lead Palisades High to a 22-7 1/2 victory over Granada Hills in the City Section Division 4-A team tennis championship at the Studio City Racquet Centre.

Westerman, 15, who began playing tennis as an awkward 12-year-old, is now the Dolphins’ No. 1 singles player as a sophomore. He has matured into a 5-10, 150-pound power player.

In his first match, Westerman won the first four games by exchanging forehands with Chris Yoo of Granada Hills. Yoo began coming to the net and mounted a small rally. With the score at 5-2, Westerman began utilizing his serve, hitting ace after ace.

“Being left-handed, I have an advantage,” Westerman said trying to downplay the power aspect of his game. “The ball spins another way and it really throws other players off.”

Palisades (14-2), which has dominated City Section tennis for the last 20 years, won its second consecutive title and 11th out of the last 17.

Palisades Coach Bud Kling was happy with the win but said he worried about the team becoming too emotional.

“Emotion turns the brain to jelly,” Kling said. “We didn’t play as well as I hoped in the doubles. But we were playing against their strength and I should be happy we played as well as we did.”

Granada Hills (13-2) was led by the doubles team of James White and Jason Weissbrod, winning two of their three matches.

In the 3-A final, Granada Hills Kennedy (16-1) defeated Van Nuys, 21 1/2-8. Van Nuys finished with a 15-2 record.