Girls tennis: Semifinal shutout

Richard Dunn

WOODLAND HILLS - Space is limited in the San Fernando Valley, so

tennis for host West Hills Chaminade College Preparatory is played on

building rooftops.

And, following Thursday’s limited-suspense CIF Southern Section

Division IV semifinal against top-seeded Corona del Mar High, it is clear

there’s room for only one atop the Division IV ladder.

Young teams like Chaminade (16-3), and the rest in the division, can

thank CIF section officials for changing the rules and giving it the Sea

Kings (24-2) this year.

Case in point: CdM girls tennis coach Andy Stewart, who joked about

how his squad flew to Warner Center Courts on a helicopter to avoid

gridlock freeway traffic, watched his team smash the Eagles, 18-0.

Yet, these same Eagles split with Harvard-Westlake and shared the

Mission League title this season, and third-seeded Harvard-Westlake lost

to second-seeded Calabasas in the other semifinal Thursday, 10-8.

“We just want to win,” said Stewart, whose hands were tied this year

when the Southern Section prohibited move-ups in sports with

enrollment-based playoffs.

The Sea Kings, thus, cannot play Peninsula or any other Division I or

Division II school, and Stewart would just love to his get his chops on

the Panthers again at full strength (CdM lost earlier in the season,

15-3, without Brittany Reitz and Kim Singer).

“We’ve got such a good team. I like our chances against anybody --

Division I, IV, 10 or whatever,” Stewart said. “We’ve definitely got

something special here.”

While Stewart will have to wait until 2001 to play Peninsula again,

his Sea Kings are also intelligent: They know what they did against

Chaminade, and Chaminade beat Harvard-Westlake in games, 83-77, after a

9-9 tie, and lost to the Wolverines, 10-8, in the second Mission League

match.

“These girls are good,” Chaminade Coach Becky Terry said of the Sea

Kings, who won a mythical national championship, along with a CIF

Division I title, in 1997, but lost in the section quarterfinals in ’98

and semifinals last year (to Peninsula).

For now, while Terry has movie-star looks and a growing program (i.e.,

two freshmen playing singles), Stewart has a talented player at all nine

positions.

If results hold true to form, CdM will not only win the CIF Division

IV title, but conquer it as if to make a statement to section officials.

In Thursday’s Semifinal Shutout, there was ardent cheering from the

Chaminade sideline in the final doubles set, which featured the Eagles’

best team.

Then, to cap the last doubles set, CdM’s Kristen Griffith, a senior

and last year’s Pacific Coast League doubles champion, and Katie

Tenerelli beat Chaminade’s Jessica Testwuide and Roxanna Ezzatian, 6-4.

While it was insignificant in that the match was already decided,

these were, after all, the semifinals and the Sea Kings didn’t drive all

that way to drop a set.

There was a chance for nine goose eggs in doubles, and when Griffith

and Tenerelli closed out the set with a 6-4 win, Griffith playfully

slammed the ball down with the head of her racket, as if to say,

“finally.”

Brittany Holland and Leslie Damion swept at No. 1 doubles for CdM,

6-0, 6-1, 6-0, and Laura Claster and Juliette Mutzke won all three sets

at No. 3 doubles. Griffith-Tenerelli swept 6-1, 6-0 and, in the riveting

final set, 6-4.

For their efforts, and that includes a long trip and quarterfinal

victory over San Marino, the Sea Kings will trek north again, this time

to the Claremont Club, traditional site of the CIF finals, and play

Calabasas for the Division IV title.

Chaminade, a Catholic prep school, stretched only one CdM player in

the semifinals, Singer’s 7-5 win over freshman Jen Segar.

Sophomore sensation and PCL singles champion Anne Yelsey swept at No.

1 singles, 6-0, 6-1, 6-0, while Reitz, a junior, won 6-0, 6-1, 6-4.

Singer also posted two shutouts.

The match was played on the seventh (or top) floor of the Warner

Center, about five miles from Chaminade Prep.

CIF DIVISION IV SEMIFINALS

Corona del Mar 18, Chaminade 0

Singles - Yelsey (CdM) def. Hassan, 6-0, def. Ong, 6-1, def. Segar,

6-0; Reitz (CdM) won 6-0, 6-1, 6-4; Singer (CdM) won 6-0, 6-0, 7-5.

Doubles - Holland-Damion (CdM) def. Testwuide-Ezzatian, 6-0, def.

Messina-Chew, 6-1, def. Merat-Gummeson, 6-0; Tenerelli-Griffith (CdM) won

6-4, 6-1, 6-0; Claster-Mutzke (CdM) won 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.