Placement was determined Monday night for the City Section girls tennis playoffs and was awarded the No. 2 seed in the 12-team Championship Division.
The Dolphins received a first-round bye and will host 10th-seeded Narbonne in the quarterfinals Friday at 1 p.m. at the . The Gauchos upset No. 7 Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies 4-3 Wednesday.
LACES finished runner-up to Palisades in the (dropping both head-to-head matches by 6-1 scores) while Narbonne finished second behind Carson in the Marine League. City playoff format is best two-out-of-three sets, with a total of four singles points and three doubles points available. The first school to score four points wins the match.
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West Valley League champion Granada Hills, winner of three straight City titles, is the No. 1 seed and also had a first-round bye. On Friday, the Highlanders will host a quarterfinal match against a familiar foe--league rival and ninth-seeded Chatsworth, which eliminated No. 8 Carson 7-0 Wednesday.
"I think being the City champion and having one of the top players in Southern California would earn Granada Hills a fair No. 1 seed," Palisades Coach Sean Passan said. "So I'm okay with it. Their No. 1 girl is ranked in the top 20 in Southern California and is only 13 or 14 years old!"
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Also receiving first-round byes were third-seeded Eagle Rock (the Northern League champion) and fourth-seeded Van Nuys (the Valley Mission League winner). Rounding out the upper division, No. 5 North Hollywood lost 5-2 to No. 12 Taft and No. 6 Cleveland got past 11th-seeded Marshall 4-3 in first-round matches Wednesday.
El Camino Real, which upset Palisades 4-3 in the Championship Division semifinals last season before falling to league rival Granada Hills in the final, got the top seed in the 16-team Invitational bracket. The lower division playoff draw also includes four Western League schools: third-seeded Westchester, No. 4 Venice, No. 5 Hamilton and No. 15 University.
The semifinals in both divisions are next Tuesday, Nov. 1 (hosted by the higher seed), the Invitational final is Thursday, Nov. 4 at in Encino and the City Championship final is at noon Friday, Nov. 5, also at Balboa Sports Center.
City Individual singles and doubles entries have also been determined and the draws will be released Thursday, Nov. 3. Much to Passan's delight, the Dolphins got the maximum number of players into the tournament, which starts Nov. 28.
Palisades' Jessie Corneli, Diana Silvers and Katie Vincent were each among those accepted into the 24-player singles draw. Also representing the Western League are Yvonne Likomanova of LACES (the 2010 City Individual runner-up) and Abby Esrock of Hamilton.
The Dolphins' No. 1 duo of Perri Zaret and Julie Takakjian is likely to be one of the top four seeds in doubles while Palisades' No. 2 tandem of Jesse Zand and Katie Pfannkuche and No. 3 tandem of Emily Wettleson and Melody Wilkenfeld also earned berths in the 24-team field.
"I am extremely happy with the [team] seeding and that all of our players made it into the Individual tournament," Passan said. "That was my goal all along. However, I'm extremely unhappy with the fact that once again singles players are allowed to pair up as doubles teams even though they have been playing singles all season. I have emailed the tournament directors about this issue, just as I did last year. I think that change needs to come from the coaches to recognize that this doubles tournament should be a reward for doubles players."
Friday, Oct. 28
CITY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION
Quarterfinals
At Pali Rec Center, 1 p.m.
#10 Narbonne vs. #2 Palisades
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