Pali Tennis Dethrones Taft

A Year After Half-Point Loss Dolphins Leave No Doubt in Semifinals Victory

Palisades High’s boys’ tennis team had good reason to be confident heading into Tuesday’s City semifinal showdown against defending champion Taft. After all, the Dolphins had routed Taft at the Fresno Tournament back in March. However, in that match the Toreadors were without City Individual singles champion Josh Tchan, so Palisades was eager to prove its superiority even with Taft’s top player in the lineup. The top-seeded Dolphins did that and then some, crushing the Toreadors 25 to 4 1/2, ending Taft’s two-year reign and exorcising the demons of last year’s half-point loss in the finals. “It wasn’t in the finals but at least we got to play them again and the score speaks for itself,” said Palisades’ senior captain Jeremy Shore, who teamed with Brandon Clark to sweep at #1 doubles. “We’re better than we were last year and we’ve had them on our radar all season.” Taft Coach Tom Wright strangely opted to move Tchan down to doubles, hoping he and partner Sergio Valenzuela could pick up 4 1/2 points by winning their three sets, 1/2 more than the four points Tchan would have earned by sweeping four singles sets. However, the strategy backfired when Shore and Clark beat the Taft tandem, 7-6 (7-4 in the tiebreaker). “I’m not sure why he did that,” Palisades Coach Bud Kling said of his counterpart’s decision to play Tchan in doubles. “It was odd because Josh hasn’t played doubles all season. I’m not sure the potential reward was worth the risk.” Even had the ploy worked it would not have been nearly enough to save the Toreadors, who did not earn a point in 16 single sets and won only three of nine doubles sets. Justin Atlan swept, 6-2, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, at #1 singles, Oliver Thornton swept, 6-1, 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, at #2 singles, Max Licona swept, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0, 6-2, at #3 singles and Kyung Choi swept, 6-0, 6-0, 6-2, 6-0, at #4 singles for Palisades, which advanced to Thursday’s final against third-seeded Granada Hills at Balboa Tennis Center in Encino.