Pekar and Catanzaro Win City Doubles Title

It had been a dozen years since the Palisades High boys tennis team last achieved the City Section "trifecta" by winning the team, singles and doubles championships in the same season.

The Dolphins nearly pulled it off again Monday, but a determined Sam Catabona of Van Nuys prevented the sweep, aided by a controversial overrule on match point in the singles final against Palisades senior Oliver Thornton at Balboa Sports Center in Encino.

The doubles final pitted two Palisades pairs against each other: top-seeded Spencer Pekar and Sam Catanzaro and No. 2-seeded Trinity Thornton and Robert Silvers.

In a match full of lengthy points, Pekar and Catanzaro wiggled out of several precarious situations in the opening set to defeat their teammates 7-6 (5), 6-4, who had won the vast majority of practice sets leading up to Monday's final.

"This is by far the best that I've played [in the Individuals]," Pekar said. "I was zoning, everything was clicking--opposite of the team championships. I always play better in competition than in practice and I know their games like the back of my hand."

Silvers and Thornton had three set points at 5-3 in the first set with Silvers serving 40-15, but they lost all three. Then they built a 3-1 lead in the tiebreaker, but Pekar and Catanzaro stormed back to take a 6-5 lead and won the set on Catanzaro's crossourt backhand winner.

"There were a lot of really good points, it was a well-played match," Palisades Coach Bud Kling said. "Spencer and Sam came up with big shots when they needed to." 

Trailing 4-5 in the second set, Silvers was serving with a 40-15 lead but he and Thornton dropped the next three points to lose the match.

"I'd much rather play them because we know what they can do," Silvers said about playing another Dolphins duo. "They played us smarter than they ever have. They were hitting short crosscourt shots at Trinity's feet and it's hard to make offensive plays from that position."

It is the second straight year a Dolphins duo has won the Individual doubles title. Seniors Kramer Waltke and Kyung Choi beat Narbonne's Anthony La and Joseph Cho in the final round last spring.

Monday's singles final was a rematch of last year's semifinal, when Oliver Thornton lost to Catabona in straight sets and hurt his ankle so badly that he had to default his third-place match against teammate Max Licona.

This time, it looked as if the top-seeded Thornton woud win easily after he breezed through the first set, 6-1, then broke the Wolves' senior to take a 2-1 lead in the second set. However, Catabona regrouped on the changeover and reeled off five of the last six games to level the match at one set apiece.

Momentum now on his side, the second-seeded Catabona forged a 5-2 lead in the third and final set when he and Thornton began to suffer leg cramps. Thornton broke Catabona, then held serve to pull within 4-5. At 15-15 in the 10th game both players requested an injury timeout to stretch their legs.

When play resumed, Catabona hit a forehand winner to get to double match point, then sprayed a forehand well beyond the baseline to set up a winner-take-all scenario in the no-ad scoring format.

After a short baseline rally, Catabona hit a left-handed forehand up the line that Thornton called out, but a tournament official reversed the call and the two-and-a-half hour struggle was over.

"I thought it was out and all of a sudden I hear people clapping," said Thorton, who confirmed he is most likely going to Cal Lutheran. "There was a mark on the court where it landed that I pointed to, but the decision was made."

It was an unfortunate ending to a hardfought match and Catabona was merely happy to survive.

"Ollie played great and there were several momentum swings," he said. "He started strong, I came back, then he came back and I had barely enough in the end to hold him off. I was going to finish no matter what."

Palisades sophomore Joseph Thornton easily won the third-place singles match, 6-0, 6-0, over sixth-seeded freshman Jaime Barajas of El Camino Real. The fifth-seeded Thornton had beaten Barajas 6-1 in the team playoffs.

"It's very satisfying to win City, I just wish we could play in a better section," said Silvers, who was still lamenting his semifinal loss to Oliver Thornton last week. "I definitely did have a chance in that match. It was straight sets, but the games were close. I wasn't aggressive enough on the big points."

Fourth-seeded Roger Carnow and Harris Choe of Granada Hills upset third-seeded William Thi and Aaron Alcaraz of Eagle Rock, 6-3, 6-3, in the third-place doubles match.