Palisades Maintains Grip on Tennis Title

Though it didn’t dominate as it had in years past, the Palisades High girls’ tennis team kept right on winning this season.

That trend continued Wednesday afternoon as the top-seeded Dolphins defeated Granada Hills, 4-3, at Meridian’s Tennis L.A. to win their third consecutive City Section championship. Palisades (15-2-1) needed a 6-4, 7-5 victory from its No. 2 doubles team of Sanam Salek and Jennifer Babcock to win.

“We didn’t have overwhelming talent this year--we won more on heart and hard work,” said Palisades Coach Bud Kling, whose teams have won 12 titles and appeared in 15 consecutive finals since he became coach in 1984.

Palisades won three of four singles matches. Sophomore Sylvia Gugliemi won, 6-2, 6-0, at the No. 1 spot, junior Mugette Ahn won, 6-1, 7-5, at No. 2 and junior Julie Westerman won, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 3.

Granada Hills’ Michal Zeituni defeated freshman Jennifer Lin, 6-1, 6-3, at No. 4 singles. The Highlanders’ Valerie Ramirez and Shannon Slotnick won the No. 1 doubles match by beating Setareh Safii and Joy Terrell, 6-1, 6-1.

“We knew their top three singles players were strong, so our goal was to sweep the doubles and pull out a singles win,” said Granada Hills Coach Ron Wood, whose team finished 15-1.

Palisades has won 16 City Section titles since 1975.

Also on Wednesday, Grant defeated Marshall, 4-3, for the Division championship.

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The City Section girls’ volleyball championships will be played Friday at Occidental College.

Palisades plays Harbor City Narbonne for the City title at 8 p.m.

Fremont and Woodland Hills Taft will play for the Division championship at 5:30.

Both matches will be televised by Channel 56.

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The Belmont boys’ team and the Van Nuys Birmingham girls’ team are favored to defend their titles at the City Section cross-country championships Saturday morning at Pierce College.

The top two teams in each division advance to the state championship meet Nov. 28 at Fresno.