HIGH SCHOOL PLAYOFF ROUNDUP : Taft Gets Another Shot at Tennis Nemesis

The Taft High girls’ tennis team will try to write a sequel with a happy ending Friday when it meets nemesis Palisades for the City Section 4-A Division title.

Top-seeded Taft advanced to the final for the fifth consecutive year Wednesday at The Racquet Centre in Studio City with a 7-0 victory over Grant. And for the fifth year in a row, the Toreadors will face Palisades, a 5-2 semifinal winner over Birmingham.

Moments after Krista Ramyead finished off Taft’s win with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Kate Phantrip, the Toreadors sent 13-time defending champion Palisades a message, yelling in unison, “We’re going to win, we’re going to win,” so loudly that residents of a nearby apartment complex called The Racquet Centre to complain.

Taft’s No. 1 player, Brahna Pastorini, said the Toreadors plan to end their losing streak to Palisades.

“We’re going to break that habit,” Pastorini said. “We have the more experienced players this year.”

Pastorini did her part with a 6-0, 6-0 trouncing of Dana Howerton, starting the Toreadors (15-0) toward a sweep that required only 1 1/2 hours. In all, Taft dropped only 19 games in 14 sets. Grant finished 11-2, both losses coming to Taft.

It was not so easy for second-seeded Palisades (13-3). The Dolphins showed an hour and a half late for their match with Birmingham because of a mix-up on the starting time. Palisades started slowly and only comebacks by Nancy Kwon at No. 2 singles and Torri Ellman and Melissa Cherin at No. 1 doubles prevented the Braves (9-6) from an upset.

Kwon stopped Danielle Cohn, 2-6, 6-0, 6-2, and Ellman and Cherin got past Molly Frydrych and Carrie Seranella, 2-6, 6-0, 6-3. Erin Saltzman and Lisa Snyderman provided the Braves with wins, Saltzman blasting Heather Zand--the City’s fourth-ranked player--6-0, 6-3, at No. 1 singles, and Snyderman besting Priya Bahr, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 4 singles.

It could have been tighter if Birmingham Coach Laurie Browski had not had to shuffle two of her doubles teams; senior Becky St. Michel broke a finger Saturday in a softball accident.