Peninsula Dominates on Way to Tennis Title

Palos Verdes Peninsula defeated North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake for the third time this season, winning the Southern Section Division I tennis title with a 12-6 victory Wednesday at the The Claremont Club.

Peninsula dominated in doubles, winning seven of nine sets, including three-set sweeps by the Panthers’ top two teams.

Peninsula (22-1), which lost in the semifinals last season, had a 5-1 lead after the first round of play.

“Everybody did their jobs and contributed today,” said Peninsula’s Tiege Sullivan, who played No. 1 doubles with Andreas Schirmer. “We play a lot of matches, and this is the payoff.”

Irvine University completed an unbeaten season with an 11-7 victory over Brentwood in the Division II final.

Singles players Aaron Yovan, Henry Mak and Jack Li did not lose a set as the top-seeded Trojans (20-0) won their first title in 11 years.

In Division III, Westlake’s No. 1 player, Alex Yaftali, won three sets and the Warriors won seven of nine singles sets to complete an unbeaten season with a 10-8 victory over defending-champion Beverly Hills.

Westlake (21-0) won for the first time in four consecutive championship match appearances.

In Division IV, No. 1 singles player Dustin Tsu and No. 2 player Travis Kinard each swept three sets as San Marino won its fifth consecutive title with an 11-7 victory over San Luis Obispo.

San Marino (23-2), which graduated seven seniors from last year’s championship team, lost only to Peninsula and Arcadia this season.

Previously unbeaten San Luis Obispo (23-1), making its third consecutive appearance in a final, lost to San Marino in the final for the second year in a row.

Palos Verdes Chadwick won its first title by defeating Pasadena Poly, 10-8, in the Division V final.

Mark Thorrington and Eric Cheng swept three sets at No. 1 doubles for Chadwick (14-4).

Thorrington and Cheng edged Pasadena Poly’s No. 3 team of Andrew Huskey and Waynn Lue, 7-5, in the last set of the day to clinch the championship.

Pasadena Poly (17-6) was runner-up for the second year in a row.