Granada Hills Zeros In on City Tennis Title

Winning isn’t supposed to be as easy in the playoffs.

Don’t tell that to Granada Hills High, which continued its romp through the City Section tournament with a 7-0 victory over fourth-seeded Hamilton in the semifinals Wednesday at Warner Center Tennis Club.

After finishing undefeated in the West Valley League, the top-seeded Highlanders (15-0) have not come close to losing a set in the playoffs. They blanked Marshall, 7-0, in the quarterfinals and barely broke a sweat against the Yankees (11-3).

The match lasted two hours, but it was decided long before that.

Granada Hills built an insurmountable 4-0 lead in under 45 minutes, losing only three singles games in eight sets.

No. 1 player Jasmin Dao defeated Denisa Karpaty of Hamilton, 6-0, 6-1, improving her season record to 14-1.

Granada Hills’ longest match was at No. 3 doubles, where Jennifer Steinberg and Andrea Blieden beat Amber Hunter and Erica Mitchell, 6-1, 6-2.

“I’m known as more of a doubles coach because we’ve won a lot,” said Granada Hills Coach Ron Wood. “But this year, our whole lineup is strong. This could be our year.”

Granada Hills plays Carson (15-0) for the City Championship in a matchup of undefeated teams. Van Nuys plays Fairfax for the Invitational championship. Both matches start at 12:30 p.m. Friday at the Warner Center.

Third-seeded Carson upset Palisades (14-3), 4-3, in the other semifinal. Palisades was going for its fourth consecutive title.

Wood, whose teams have lost to Palisades in the playoffs three of the last four years, admitted beating Palisades in the final would have been the most rewarding scenario.

“No disrespect to Carson but we wanted to play Palisades,” Wood said. “They’ve owned the City in tennis.”

Last year was especially painful for Granada Hills, which lost to Palisades, 4-3, in the final.

“I really don’t care who we play in the finals,” said Dao, an 11th-grader ranked in the top 50 in Southern California in the girls’ 16s division by the United States Tennis Assn. “We practice hard, we’re used to each other and we use good teamwork. If we win, we win. If we lose, we lose.”