String Time is Back

Coming off a season in which it went undefeated and won the City Section title for the first time in seven years, the question is what the Palisades High girls tennis team can do for an encore. Despite being defending champions, the Dolphins lose eight players from last year’s varsity team and Head Coach Bud Kling believes his team will have to play extremely well to repeat. ‘We don’t have the depth that we did last year,’ he says. ‘If I had to rank the top teams right now, I’d rate Granada Hills, Taft and Carson ahead of us based on who they have coming back. We’re not even a lock to win our own league.’ Granada Hills and Taft play in the West Valley League while Carson, which lost to Pali in the finals last year, is favored to win the Marine League. Venice should challenge the Dolphins in the newly realigned Western League, which now includes Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies. ‘Adding a team means we have 12 league matches instead of 10 but it also means that we lose one of our nonleague matches,’ Kling says. ‘That’s why I have us playing two tournaments.’ The Dolphins travel to Fresno for the Peachtree Classic this weekend, where they will compete in Division I’the highest level. Pali opens against Saratoga Friday morning in the opening round at Sierra Racket Club and will then play either Rio Americano or Foothill, depending on the result of their first match. Kling also organized his own tournament, which starts this season, called the Bay Area Classic. In that, Palisades will host Beverly Hills, then travel to Mira Costa and Malibu. The Dolphins open nonleague play against Marymount Monday at the PTC. ‘It’s always good to get in some tough matches before league starts,’ Kling says. ‘I scheduled traditionally strong Southern Section teams so hopefully we won’t be in over our heads.’ Palisades lost six players to graduation, including captains Krista Slocum, the 2005-06 Palisadian-Post Cup winner, and top doubles player Brittany O’Neil. Sarah Yankelevitz, who played No. 3 doubles last season, has transferred to a boarding school in Ojai and Andrea Walton did not complete the spring program. ‘What this does is it gives new players an opportunity to compete for a starting spot,’ Kling says. There are one or two girls on the wait list who may contend for varsity but we’ll have to see.’ Palisades does return its top singles player, junior Katy Nikolova, who did not lose a set in team competition last season after joining the Dolphins just before the second round of league play. Though Palisades might have won the City without her, Kling admits acquiring Nikolova was the final piece to the puzzle. ‘Katy was a key factor last year and she’s been practicing with her coach and playing tournaments since then so she’ll be even better,’ he says. ‘She’ll be one of the best players in the City.’ Nikolova is ranked No. 32 in Southern California in the Girls’ 16s. Freshman Krystal Hansard, who trains locally at the Palisades Tennis Center and is ranked in the Girls 14s, will start at No. 2 singles while Kathryn Cullen, who played No. 4 singles last season, will move up to No. 3. ‘The fourth singles position is a question mark right now,’ Kling says. Lauren Pugatch, one of only two seniors in the Dolphins’ lineup, will partner with sophomore Audrey Ashraf at No. 1 doubles. The other two doubles positions will be contested for by five players’Alex Kling (Pali’s only other senior), junior Erika Lee and sophomores Rose Schlaff, Yasamin Ghiasi and Marina Sterngold.