Pali Tennis Should Net Top Seed

Pali Tennis Should Net Top Seed By STEVE GALLUZZO Sports Editor The City Section girls tennis playoff seedings were determined Wednesday (results unavailable at press time) and defending champion Palisades High was expected to be named the top seed in the 12-team City (championship) draw. Having dropped just one out of 84 sets in Western League play, the Dolphins appear to be clicking on all cylinders heading into the playoffs, which begin Monday. If seeded first or second, Palisades (15-2 overall, 12-0 in league) would receive a first-round bye and would not play until next Wednesday, when it would host a quarterfinal match at 1 p.m. Carson (13-0, 9-0), runner-up to Palisades last season, went unbeaten in the Marine League this season and was the logical choice to be seeded No. 2 behind Palisades. Northern League champion Los Angeles Marshall (13-0, 12-0) and West Valley League rivals Taft and Granada Hills are also expected to receive high seeds. When the pairings for the City Individual tournament are announced, Pali’s Katy Nikolova could be seeded No. 1 in singles after a stellar season in which she lost only once and was undefeated against City opponents. Nikolova lost to North Hollywood’s Desiree Stone in the final last year as a sophomore. Palisades clinched its 29th league title in 30 years last Thursday with a 7-0 rout of host Westchester. Krystal Hansard won 8-0 at No. 1 singles and Kathryn Cullen won 8-3 playing No. 2 singles for the Dolphins. Palisades has won 18 City team titles, more than any other school. Girls Volleyball The City girls volleyball playoff seedings were determined Tuesday and Palisades High was seeded fifth in the 32-team draw behind Marine League winner San Pedro, West Valley League winner Taft, Sunset Six League winner Grant and Valley Mission League winner Sylmar. After losing only one out of 31 games in their 10 Western League matches, the Dolphins (12-1 overall, 10-0 in league) will open the playoffs at home against 28th-seeded Garfield at 7 and, if victorious, would host a second-round match on Monday against the Bell-Cleveland winner. Defending City champion San Pedro (13-0) and West Valley League winner Taft (13-0) were seeded one and two as expected. Sylmar got the nod over Palisades for the fourth spot in part because the Spartans beat the Dolphins in four games in a nonleague match on September 18. West Valley runner-up Granada Hills was sixth and Venice, which finished second to Pali in the Western League, was seeded seventh. Palisades began the playoffs as the No. 6 seed last season and reached the semifinals where they were swept by second-seeded Taft. The Dolphins tuned up for this postseason by participating in the Redondo tournament last weekend. Pali finished second in its pool in the Silver Division, beating New Roads and Gardena Serra and losing to Beverly Hills. Winners of tonight’s first-round matches will advance to the single-elimination championship bracket while the losers drop to an Invitational bracket.