No ‘I’ in Team, But There Is in Individual

Today marks the end of the team concept in high school girls’ tennis.

The Southern Section will decide team championships in five divisions today at the Claremont Club.

But the Southern Section individual singles and doubles tournament, in which players from every division compete against one another, is just getting underway.

The singles and doubles finalists in each league tournament qualified for individual competition, which began Saturday with three rounds of head-to-head, single-elimination matches at six sites.

The tournament continues with the round of 16 and quarterfinals Nov. 29, and the semifinals and finals Nov. 30. The last four rounds will be at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach.

Among the players who have advanced to the round of 16 is Newport Harbor senior Natalie Braverman, who did not play last season but was a quarterfinalist in 1999.She is ranked No. 16 in Southern California in the U.S. Tennis Assn. girls’ 18 division.

Other likely contenders include Corona del Mar junior Anne Yelsey, who is No. 10 nationally in girls’ 16s, and Lindsey Nelson, a Villa Park sophomore who is No. 1 in Southern California in girls’ 16s. Irvine Woodbridge junior Elizabeth Exon and Carpinteria Cate senior Lori Stern were semifinalists last year, and Calabasas sophomore Monica Wiesener has had strong showings in recent International Tennis Federation and USTA tournaments.

Palm Desert has Robyn Baker and Casey Cross in singles and the team of Jennifer Joy and Ashley Mettert in doubles.

Dana Point Dana Hills, Palos Verdes Peninsula and Fullerton Troy each had two doubles teams advance.

Absent from the tournament is 2000 singles champion Brittany Reitz of Corona del Mar. Reitz, who has competed for the Sea Kings on a part-time basis this season, played in four Pacific Coast League matches, one short of the minimum required to play in the league tournament.

“It would have been a great experience,” Reitz said. “But honestly, I’ve moved on. If that’s the way it’s going to go, I’ll just play the team matches, help the team win another championship and then start focusing on college.”

She plans to attend Purdue next fall on a full tennis scholarship.

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Happy return: Rory Steinle, one of four seniors on the Laguna Beach High team that will attempt to win its fourth consecutive Southern Section Division V championship today, is enjoying the Artists’ success as much as anyone after a belated beginning.

Her season got off to a late start when a pre-cancerous lesion was discovered on her upper right arm and had to be removed in late July.

“The doctors said I couldn’t wait until after the tennis season,” Steinle said. “When they told me I couldn’t wait to have it taken out, that was kind of scary.”

The surgery and an eight-week layoff caused her to miss most of the first month of the season, and Steinle believes she and her game are just now rounding into shape. She teams with sophomore Jessica Murray at No. 2 doubles.

Laguna Beach (14-8) faces Chadwick in the Division V title match at 11:30 this morning at the Claremont Club.