Peninsula Wins on Double Dare

Five seniors on the Harvard-Westlake High boys’ tennis team were trying to go four for four, winning a Southern Section championship every year of their prep careers.

Instead, Peninsula went three for three.

The top-seeded Panthers defeated No. 2-seeded Harvard-Westlake for the third time in as many meetings this season, 12-6, in the Southern Section Division I title match Wednesday at the Claremont Club.

The Panthers (22-1), whose only loss came by forfeit when they used an ineligible player in a match against Santa Monica last month, defeated Harvard-Westlake (25-4-1) thanks to their dominance in doubles, where Peninsula won seven of nine sets--including three-set sweeps by its top two teams.

But perhaps that should have been no surprise.

Peninsula’s No. 1 doubles player, Tiege Sullivan, won Southern Section doubles title with Go Fukugaki on Saturday.

Against Harvard-Westlake, Sullivan and Andreas Schirmer scored 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 victories.

Rylan Rizza , who usually plays No. 1 singles, and Oren Franko won their sets at No. 2 doubles, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.

“Who would have thought they’d put their No. 1 player, who’s playing the best tennis of his life, in doubles?” asked Aron Gortman, who played No. 1 doubles with Allan Haldeman for Harvard-Westlake and lost two of three sets.

Peninsula, which lost in the semifinals last season and beat Corona del Mar to win the 1998 Division I championship match, built a 5-1 lead after the first round.

The Panthers won the third round, 4-2, after Harvard-Westlake managed to break even in the second round.

“That was big,” Sullivan said of the Panthers’ early jump. “We play a lot of matches, and this is the payoff.”

No. 1 singles player Andrew Rosenfeld and No. 2 player Jesse Ferlianto each won two of three sets for Harvard-Westlake, which was making its fourth consecutive appearance in a final, although this was the Wolverines’ first berth in Division I.

The Wolverines won the Division II championship last year and two consecutive Division III titles before that.

“I thought we played terrible,” Rosenfeld said. “I thought we had a good shot at them with this lineup.

“But obviously, they showed they’re the better team if they beat us three times.”