Dao, Matias Reach Singles Title Match

Third-seeded Christine Dao of Granada Hills High, who wasn’t even on the Highlander girls’ tennis team at the start of the season, put herself in position to win the City Section singles championship with a 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 upset of No. 2-seeded and defending champion Judith De Vera of Carson in the semifinals Tuesday at Balboa Sports Complex in Encino.

Dao will play top-seeded Dianne Matias of Carson in the title match today at 2 p.m. at the same site. Matias defeated Granada Hills’ No. 4-seeded Canna Furuta, 6-4, 6-2, in the other semifinal.

Dao, a junior who had played varsity tennis the last two seasons but planned to sit out this year to concentrate on private workouts and U.S. Tennis Assn. junior competition, decided to return to the high school team at midseason.

Since then, Dao has made the most of her return, leading the Highlanders to the City Section team championship with a 4-3 victory over Carson last month and advancing to her first singles final.

De Vera, who was trying to advance to her third final in a row, had a match point at 5-3 in the second set. But she hit it long and Dao won the next four games to force a third set.

“I’m a little surprised at today, to be honest,” Dao said. “I wasn’t playing that well at first, and then when I came back in the second set, that did it. Everything started clicking.”

In doubles, the two top-seeded teams advanced to the final. The No. 1 team, Jasmine Reed and Madison Sellers of Palisades, cruised past Westchester’s Becky Bort-Mills and Charilyn Watkins, 6-1, 6-1, and Granada Hills’ Tracey Takeshita and Maria Cardenas eliminated teammates Jessica Linder and Roxanne Plata, 6-4, 6-3.

-- Lauren Peterson

The Walnut girls’ basketball team will forfeit its 54-24 victory over Claremont on Friday in the championship game of the Claremont tournament.

The Mustangs used an ineligible player, Antonia Caffey, who had been ejected from the tournament semifinal in the closing seconds for fighting with La Verne Bonita’s Nikki Miyashita. According to Southern Section rules, a player ejected from a game must sit out the next two contests.

Walnut Coach Carmen Caffey, Antonia’s mother, said she was unaware her daughter had been ejected, only that she had been given a technical.

-- Melanie Neff