Westlake Closes Gap on Nemesis

There is not much wiggle room between the teams ranked Nos. 1 and 3 in The Times’ regional poll.

When No. 1 Westlake High met No. 3 Harvard-Westlake last week, the match--tied in sets, 9-9--was decided on games, with Westlake winning, 80-78.

“I knew it was going to be a close match even before we played them. But I didn’t think it’d be quite that close,” Westlake Coach Connie Flanderka said.

Harvard-Westlake (6-1) won six of nine singles sets, but Westlake (8-0) rebounded by earning the same edge in doubles.

Westlake went ahead, 7-5, in the second round of the round-robin competition when Nicole Mead and Jaclyn Kansky, the Warriors’ No. 2 doubles team, defeated Chelsea Heller and Chelsea Dillon, Harvard-Westlake’s top duo, 6-3. Other key wins came from the No. 3 team of Lauren Cardoni and Lindsay Weiss, who blanked the Wolverines’ No. 2 team, 6-0, and edged the No. 3 team, 7-5.

“It was just really good for the kids to realize how important every game is,” Flanderka said.

And how much difference a year makes.

Last season, Westlake absorbed a 17-1 loss against Harvard-Westlake, which went on to reach the Southern Section Division III final.

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City Section schools and the Los Angeles City Department of Recreation and Parks will benefit from the closure of the Racquet Centre of Universal City last weekend.

All of the center’s night-lighting fixtures will be donated to the L.A. City Department of Recreation and Parks for use on public tennis courts. City schools will be given the center’s unused nets, wind screens and tennis balls.

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Like a few other high school teams in the region, Campbell Hall was forced by the closure of the Racquet Centre to look for a new home site this season.

The Vikings landed at Valley College, where seven previously unused courts on the south side of campus were refurbished by Campbell Hall at a cost of approximately $25,000.

The courts are now being used exclusively by the Vikings for practices and home matches.

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The Top 5

Rankings of regional girls’ tennis teams

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RK LW School (League) 1. 2 Westlake (Marmonte) 2. 1 Simi Valley (Marmonte) 3. 3 Harvard-Westlake (Mission) 4. 4 Calabasas (Frontier) 5. 5 Hart (Foothill)

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