Calabasas Double-Crosses Harvard-Westlake

When Chloe Solomon and Celia Durkin play doubles together, which isn’t often, they are referred to by their Calabasas High teammates as “C-Squared.”

And just when it appeared Harvard-Westlake might tie the score, the pair came up big.

Solomon and Durkin, playing No. 3 doubles for only the second time this season, rallied from a 4-2 deficit and defeated Harvard-Westlake’s No. 1 team of Katelyn Rader and Shilpa Madhavan, 7-5, in the final set, completing a three-set sweep that gave the Coyotes a 10-8 victory in a Southern Section Division IV semifinal girls’ tennis playoff match Thursday at Calabasas.

“I knew it was the deciding match,” Solomon said. “It was so nerve-racking. But we knew we were going to play together and it was a good move.”

Durkin, a freshman ranked No. 13 in the girls’ 14 division in Southern California by the U.S. Tennis Assn., has a 51-0 record in singles this season. She is 6-0 in doubles.

No. 2-seeded Calabasas (21-0) advanced to the championship match for the second consecutive season and third time in four seasons.

The Coyotes, who defeated San Marino in last year’s title match, will face top-seeded Corona del Mar (20-2) in the final match Monday at the Claremont Club in Claremont.

Harvard-Westlake (16-7) won the Division III title last season but was forced to move down this year because divisions were based on enrollment.

“We knew it was going to be close,” Madhavan said. “It was a great match. We fought as hard as we could.”

The Wolverines put up more of a fight near the end than at the beginning of the match. Calabasas took a 4-2 lead after the first round of the round-robin competition, and held an 8-4 advantage after the second round.

But key singles victories by Harvard-Westlake’s two top players helped spark a last-round rally.

No. 1 player Stephanie Berg, who missed a 13-5 nonleague loss to Calabasas earlier this season, defeated Erin Everly, 6-2, and No. 2 Jessica Leck topped Monica Wiesener, 6-3.

Wiesener (55-1), Durkin (51-0) and Everly (57-2) entered the match with a combined record of 163-3 in singles sets.

Wiesener, the Frontier League singles champion, rallied from a 5-2 deficit to beat Berg, 7-5, and she defeated Karissa Hazy, 6-1.

Everly, the Frontier runner-up to Wiesener, beat Hazy, 6-1, in her first-round set and edged Leck, 7-6 (4), in the second round before falling to Berg in the last rotation.

Corona del Mar 18, Chaminade 0--Freshman Jen Segar, ranked No. 3 in the USTA Southern California girls’ 14 division, had the best showing for the unseeded Eagles (16-3) at Warner Tennis Center.

Segar lost, 7-5, to Kim Singer--ranked No. 17 in the Southern California girls’ 16 division--and lost, 6-4, to Brittany Reitz--ranked No. 16 in the Southern California girls’ 18 division. Sophomore Anne Yelsey--ranked No. 3 in the Southern California girls’ 16 division--defeated Segar, 6-0.

No. 1-seeded Corona del Mar is 20-2.