Palisades, Hamilton Seek Tennis Supremacy

The City Section girls’ tennis schedule got underway this week and it’s likely that defending champion Palisades and 1995 champion Hamilton will be battling in the final for the third year in a row.

Palisades, which defeated Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies in its opening match, is led by two-time City champion Ilona Kordonskaya and Kristina Olshanskya, who was last year’s runner-up.

At a recent junior international tournament in Hawaii, Kordonskaya won the girls’ singles, teamed with Olshanskya to win girls’ doubles, and teamed with Palisades’ No. 1 boys’ player, Danny Westerman, to win the mixed doubles.

“Ilona and Kristina give us a pretty solid 1-2 punch,” said Palisades Coach Bud Kling, who has guided the Dolphins to 10 City titles. “Our other returning players are also talented. But Hamilton and Granada Hills are very strong as well.”

Palisades continues its schedule Tuesday against L.A. High.

Hamilton, which plays Fairfax on Tuesday, has a senior-dominated team that includes four strong singles players in Annie Lippman, Denisa Karparty, Kamilah Smith and Malika Brooks.

All of the doubles players also are seniors, giving the Yankees an experienced squad in their quest for a second title in three years.

“I feel good about the ability of our girls,” said Hamilton Coach Freda Brown, who is in her first season with the Yankees. “Many of them were members of the championship team.”

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Football teams in the Coastal, Valley Pac-8, Northwest Valley, Northern and Southern Pacific conferences begin conference play this week as the real drive for a City championship gets underway. Teams in the nine-member Southeastern Conference have been playing one another for the last two weeks.

And while the Northern Conference opener between Lincoln and Belmont includes teams with 1-2 records, it features one of the City’s most intriguing players in 5-foot-6 running back Sherman Austin.

Austin, who weighs 160 pounds, has rushed for 488 yards and seven touchdowns in 54 carries and has eight receptions for 420 yards and three touchdowns.