Calabasas Puts Up Racket, Wins Playoff Match : Tennis: Saedinia arrives empty-handed but Meyer comes to the rescue and they double up on Harvard-Westlake, 11-7, to advance to semifinals.

When Shervin Saedinia left her house for school at Calabasas High on Tuesday morning, she forgot to bring her tennis racket.

It didn’t appear to be a very good move, considering she plays for the Coyote tennis team and they had a third-round Southern Section Division II playoff match against Harvard-Westlake.

Her partner at No. 1 doubles, Suzy Meyer, happened to have an extra and lent it to Saedinia.

Thank goodness for teammates.

The two went on to win two doubles sets for the Coyotes (17-2), leading them to an 11-7 victory at Calabasas High, and putting the team in the Division II semifinals against Villa Park.

“I felt some pressure,” Meyer said. “I always feel pressure but [Saedinia] totally relaxes me.”

Wolverine Coach Rich Kinuya teamed his No. 1 singles player, Lindsy Forbess, with Amanda Countner at No. 1 doubles--a move which basically conceded singles matches in an attempt to gain points in doubles.

Countner and Forbess swept their sets, 6-3, 6-1, 6-0, but Saedinia and Meyer surprised Kinuya’s No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams with big serves and solid forehand ground strokes.

The Coyote combo took a 6-4 set against the No. 3 Wolverine team of Lori Markman and Christine Kahm to put the Wolverines (18-4) in a hole, then buried them with a 6-2 victory over the No. 2 team of Sheila Vassan and Vicki Koven.

“We just went out there and did our best,” Saedinia said, “That’s all you can do.”

Calabasas’ fearsome threesome in singles--Shera Wiegler, Debra Pepkowitz and Kirsten Gross, who are all highly ranked by the Southern California Tennis Assn.--swept their nine sets without much of a challenge.

Wiegler barely broke a sweat at No. 1 singles, winning three sets without losing a game. Gross breezed at No. 3, with three straight 6-1 victories and Pepkowitz came through virtually unscathed, 6-3, 6-1, 6-0.

“This was what I was really expecting,” said Calabasas Coach Bob Holycross, who has seen several teams move their best players to doubles rather than go head to head against his singles players. “But it’s always going to be hard to beat us when we don’t give up many games in singles.”