Tennis Rolls Past Santa Monica

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Any concerns Palisades High girls tennis coach Bud Kling had that his team might suffer a letdown after its first loss of the season disappeared the moment the first ball was struck last Tuesday in the Dolphins’ Western League opener against Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies at the Palisades Tennis Center.

Palisades blanked the Unicorns 7-0 and won all seven pro sets by 8-0 scores. Caroline Goldberg played No. 1 singles, Morgan Swan played No. 2 and twins Ireland and Sophia Amato played the No. 3 and  No. 4 spots.

Defending City Individual doubles champions Madeline Prins and Lizzie Belokonnyi were the Dolphins’ top tandem, Calypso Peraticos teamed with Caroline Ross at No. 2 and Giovanni Feingold and Maddy Goore played No. 3.

The following day Palisades traveled to Santa Monica for an intersectional match and prevailed 14-4, sweeping all nine doubles sets in the round robin format. Goldberg battled Vikings’ top player Vivian Chen (who is ranked in the top 10 in Southern California in her age group) tough before falling 7-5, then rebounded to win her last two sets, 6-1, 6-0.

Swan also took two out of three and Ross won 6-0 to notch a point at the No. 3 singles spot. In doubles, Prins and Belokonnyi won 6-1, 6-0, 6-0; Peraticos and Abby Schleichkorn won 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 and the Amatos won 6-1, 6-0, 6-0.

“I loved it, even though we lost,” Swan said of the Mira Costa match. “It’s good for us to play teams like that because it challenges us more. A lot of the younger players think ‘Oh, we’re winning so easily’ but it’s not always going to be like that. We have to be able to step up our game against the stronger teams and hopefully we can get to that point.”

The only drama in Monday’s league clash with Venice was at No. 4 singles, where Goore ultimately  fell 8-3 to Aires Miranda-Antonio. Palisades swept the other six matches. The doubles duos of Prins and Belokonnyi, Ireland and Sophia Amato and Selin Sindel and Taylor Barfield all won 8-0.