Pali High Pair in City Tennis Final

As was the case in the City Section team tennis championship on Nov. 7, the final match of the Individual doubles tournament will be between and Granada Hills.

Palisades' Perri Zaret and Julie Takakjian kept their perfect record intact with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Carson's Michelle Nguyen and Angelica Ramos at on Wednesday in Encino. The Dolphins' duo has won all 20 of its sets this season, dropping only 12 of 142 games along the way. The Colts' senior pair, however, put forth a spirited fight and it wasn't until the fifth match point that Takakjian hit a volley winner to secure Palisades' spot in Friday's final.

"That was by far the best team we've played," Takakjian said. "I was definitely more nervous than I was for any previous match. My serves have been pretty good the last two days and Perri's volleys were good as usual. I always try to stay on my toes so I can recover quickly."

Palisades Coach Sean Passan was pleased with his top team's performance: "They played smart tennis. Towards the end of the second set they got a little complacent and I wasn't too happy with their footwork, but they played smart."

Seeded second in the 24-team draw, Zaret and Takakjian will face their stiffest test of the season in the final when they take on defending champions Analyssa Tallas and Samantha Nuno of Granada Hills, who advanced with an impressive 6-1, 6-0 semifinal victory over Pali High's No. 2 tandem of Katie Pfannkuche and Jesse Zand. The Highlanders' duo has lost only two games in six sets in the tournament.

Zaret was forthright in assessing her play and what she and Takakjian will need to do to upset the No. 1-seeded team: "I wasn't on my game today, I missed a few shots that I normally make. This kind of showed us what we need to work on for Friday. They're going to be a good team and we'll have to have an on day."

Tallas and Nuno were on their game from the start against sixth-seeded Zand and Pfannkuche, who were hoping to make it an all-Palisades final. They have shown a penchant for coming from behind all season, but this time the hill was too steep and the opposition too strong.

"We've seen them the last couple of rounds and we knew they'd be good," said Pfannkuche, a junior. "We tried our best. We wanted to at least keep up with them. There were a lot of deuces. We definitely could handle the pace, they just put points away faster."

Passan had fun coaching his No. 2 team, which was pushed to play at a higher level.  

"The pace was up to Jesse's liking and it was great tennis," Passan said. "It was a chance to work on things. For instance, Jesse had to really pop her volleys, she couldn't get away with just chopping it. And Katie had to loft her groundstrokes more to allow time to get back into position. This was a really enjoyable match to coach."

The loss did not mark the end of the season for Pfannkuche and Zand, however. They still get to play Nguyen and Ramos for third place Friday.

"The goal at any tournament is to get to play another match and end with a win, not a loss so I'm glad we have one more," said Zand, whose game has matured as a result of playing doubles her freshman year. "It's helped my singles game a lot. The court feels so much more opened up. I'm going to start playing junior tournaments soon, when the [high school] season is officially over."

Nguyen and Ramos lost to Tallas and Nuno 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals last year and Nguyen predicted a competitive final Friday.

"We're the kind of partners where one of us will play really well and the other doesn't, one of us wins the deuce point and the other loses the ad point," she said. "The Pali team is very consistent, they kept the ball deep and have good teamwork. The Granada Hills girls hit it hard and like to keep the points short and sweet. You have to get them moving around. It should be a great match."

Granada Hills is trying for a season sweep of the team, Individual singles and Individual doubles titles. Highlanders freshman Sarah Nuno, the second seed, plays top-seeded Shayla Fulton of Dorsey for the singles championship.

CITY INDIVIDUAL TOURNAMENT

Semifinals

SINGLES

(1) Shayla Fulton, Dorsey d. (4) Cassandra Fisbeck, Granada Hills, 6-2, 7-5

(2) Sarah Nuno, Granada Hills d. (3) Yvonne Likomanova, LACES, 6-4, 6-2

DOUBLES

(1) Analyssa Tallas-Samantha Nuno, Granada Hills d. (6) Jesse Zand-Katie Pfannkuche, Palisades, 6-1, 6-0

(2) Perri Zaret-Julie Takakjian, Palisades d. (3) Michelle Nguyen-Angelica Ramos, Carson, 6-2, 6-1

(Note: Finals and third-place matches are Friday at 1 p.m. at Balboa Sports Center)