Furuta, Stone Advance to City Tennis Final

Top-seeded Canna Furuta of Granada Hills and second-seeded Desiree Stone of North Hollywood each won in straight sets Friday at Balboa Sports Complex to advance to the City Section girls’ tennis singles tournament final.

Furuta beat fourth-seeded Simone Greene of Westchester, 6-3, 6-2, in the semifinals and Stone defeated third-seeded Olivia Colman of Palisades, 6-3, 7-5.

In doubles semifinals Friday, Yasmir Navas and Krista Slocum of Palisades defeated Cielo Domingo and Tisha Sutphin of Carson, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, and Alex Margolin and Roxanne Plata of Granada Hills stopped Cody Clark and Lauren Pugatch of Palisades, 6-0, 6-3.

The finals will be Monday at 2 p.m. at Balboa Sports Complex in Encino.

Sean Blunt, football coach at San Fernando for 11 years, has resigned.

Tom Hernandez, a former San Fernando coach and dean, is the leading candidate to replace Blunt, who is considering an offer to become defensive coordinator at North Hills Monroe.

Eric Sondheimer

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Fox Sports Net will televise the Southern Section Division II championship football game between Mission Viejo and Newhall Hart at 7:30 tonight at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

The City Section championship division game between Venice and Carson on Friday will be broadcast at 9 tonight and at 8 p.m. Wednesday on Los Angeles cable Channel 36.

Tickets for the football tripleheader today at the Home Depot Center are $12 for adults, $5 for students with identification and $5 for children under 12. One ticket is good for all three Southern Section championship games: Noon, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame vs. Palmdale in Division III; 3:30 p.m., Orange Lutheran vs. Hacienda Heights Los Altos in Division VI; 7:30 p.m., Mission Viejo vs. Newhall Hart in Division II.

Southern Section officials announced they have reached an agreement with Toyota and the Southern California Toyota Dealers Assn. to extend their title partnership through the 2006-07 school year, worth $510,000 over the next three years. By the end of the contract, Toyota will have provided more than $1 million to high school sports in Southern California in a six-year period.

Corporate partnerships such as the one with Toyota account for more than 20% of the section’s annual $2-million budget and save member schools 60 cents per student each school year that otherwise would have to be raised through dues.