Dolphins Make City Semis

It’s been three weeks since the Palisades High boys’ tennis team won the most one-sided City Section final in history. Turns out, the Dolphins aren’t done. Oliver Thornton and Max Licona each won two singles matches last week to advance to the semifinals of the City Individual Tournament and the tandem of Kramer Waltke and Kyung Choi also won twice to reach the doubles semifinals. Thornton played second-seeded Richard Catabona of Van Nuys and Licona faced top-seeded Ace Mattias of Narbonne on Tuesday for berths in the final at Balboa Sports Center in Encino. Mattias ousted Licona, 6-0, 6-3 and Catabona beat Thornton, 6-4, 6-3, setting up an all-Palisades third place match Friday. Until Tuesday, Thornton has yet to lose a set in the tournament. Licona lost the first set, 6-1, before recovering to win the last two, 6-2, 6-3, against Eagle Rock’s Gary Fung in the third round. He followed that victory with a 6-2, 7-6 (7) triumph over Monroe’s Paxton Samammatir. Meanwhile, Thornton beat Taft’s David Engelberg, 6-4, 6-1, in his quarterfinal. Freshman Robbie Bellamy had to default his quarterfinal match against Jesse An of Kennedy. Seniors Waltke and Choi blanked Gagandeep Singh and Bobby Mohammadian of Kennedy, 6-0, 6-0, in the third round, then beat Adnan Ansar and Aaron Alcaraz of Eagle Rock, 6-0, 6-3, in the quarterfinals. They took on Steven Chow and Vincent Zhao of Franklin in the semifinals, rallying to win 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 for a spot in the final versus Anthony La and Joseph Cho of Narbonne on Friday at 1 p.m., also at Balboa Sports Center.