Having achieved a rare City Section triple crown by sweeping the team, singles and doubles titles, one might think the Palisades High boys tennis team would be satisfied with its accomplishments this season.
However, its goal was to advance farther in the Southern California Regionals than last year when it lost in the quarterfinals to Harvard-Westlake.
Palisades (24-2) was seeded fourth out of 16 teams in the draw and was well on its way to winning Tuesday’s opening round match after Jake Sands, Lucas Bellamy and RJ Sands won in singles to give the Dolphins a 3-0 lead over Arcadia in the best-of-seven format.
Instead, the visiting Apaches (22-1) swept the last four matches to prevail 4-3 at the Palisades Tennis Center.
Ben Goldberg lost to Arcadia’s Charles Deng at the No. 1 singles spot and all three doubles teams lost in straight sets.
“This is not the end we wanted but we played a good team and we still had a great season,” Pali High Coach Bud Kling said. “We haven’t played a close match in awhile and we couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.”
— Steve Galluzzo
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