Double Trouble

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Tennis is mostly an individual sport, but for Braun Levi and Cooper Schwartz, teamwork is the name of the game. The two Palisadians are not only teammates on the varsity team at Loyola High, but they have joined forces to become one of the top doubles tandems in the CIF Southern Section, as evidenced by their run to the quarterfinals of the Ojai Tournament last week.

Being best buddies makes it easy for them to pump each other up when one or the other is off his game and living in the same town provides ample opportunity for off the court activities as well.

“We met through tournaments in juniors and we’ve been competing against each other since we were kids,” said Cooper, who recalled winning their first USTA match in a super tiebreaker when they were 10. “We’re both extremely competitive so we don’t really need to say too much. It’s easy to get down on yourself [in singles], but in doubles you have a rock to lean on.”

Schwartz lives in the Riviera, started playing tennis at age 6 and has been taking lessons for close to a year now from former Palisades High and USC player Jake Sands, who lives nearby. He transferred from Brentwood to Loyola between his freshman and sophomore years.

“Braun and his dad were a big part of that.” he admits.

Levi, who lives a few houses down from St. Matthew’s, has played the sport his whole life and attended Corpus Christi School before becoming a Cub. They played with different partners last year but since uniting they have done nothing but win. The day before Ojai, they won the Mission League doubles title, beating a pair of duos from highly-ranked Harvard-Westlake in the process.

Levi and Schwartz are also good friends with Palisades’ top two singles players, Lorenzo Brunkow and Neel Joshi, who both reside in Topanga and play doubles together in junior events. Braun and Schwartz lost to the Pali pair 8-6 in a junior tournament last year but got revenge of sorts when they recently won a friendly best two-of-three sports clash at Pepperdine.

“They thought they were better athletes so we said ‘Okay, let’s see’ and we played them in tennis, basketball and pickleball,” Levi said. “They got us in tennis but we beat them in basketball and pickleball… Cooper is really good!”

The two hang out in the Palisades and at Will Rogers beach all the time. Schwartz also plays golf and is a member at Riviera. Levi is a member at Bel-Air Bay Club. Although they are accomplished singles players, they have seemingly found their niche in doubles. At the Ojai they lost a combined four games in their first two matches, then outlasted Edison’s Dylan Trinh and Kai Stolaruk 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 in the round of 16 before falling to No. 2-seeded Caleb Settles and Mtaeen Ghafarshad of Claremont.