Peninsula Tennis Team Looking to State Case

The Palos Verdes Peninsula girls’ tennis team will try to demonstrate its dominance on a state level this weekend when the Panthers take part in the National High School Tennis All-American tournament in Newport Beach.

The tournament name is a misnomer, for this year at least, considering that all 16 teams in the event are from California.

Last March, Tim Mang, boys’ tennis coach at Corona del Mar, staged a boys’ tournament--won by Peninsula--that drew teams from several states.

Mang said the girls’ tennis season in states such as Florida and Texas is played in the spring, preventing those states’ schools from competing this year. But Mang said he hopes to work out an arrangement that will allow the tournament to have a national field next year.

Peninsula, the defending Southern Section Division I girls’ champion, is seeded first. The Panthers are led by juniors Shilpa Joshi and Colby Comstock. Del Mar Torrey Pines, the 10-time defending San Diego champion, is seeded second. Corona del Mar is third and Menlo-Atherton, the two-time Central Coast champion, is fourth.

The tournament will include several players ranked among the top five in the Southern and Northern California junior divisions: defending Southern Section champion Luana Magnani of San Marino, Lauren Perl of Torrey Pines, Iris Ichim of Beverly Hills, Anne Yelsey of Corona del Mar, Tracy Lin of Anaheim Canyon and Ashley Lipton of Menlo.

The first and second rounds will be played Friday at five clubs in the Newport Beach area. The semifinals and finals are Saturday at Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

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Long Beach Wilson, the four-time defending Southern Section Division I boy’s water polo champion, is part of the 16-team field that will participate in the two-day Southern California Invitational that begins Friday at Heritage Park in Irvine.

The single-elimination tournament features eight teams from Northern California. The championship match is Saturday at 7:20 p.m.