Peninsula Wins Division I Championship

Palos Verdes Peninsula won its first eight Southern Section Division I girls’ tennis championships with big hitters at No. 1 singles.

The Panthers won their ninth title Monday at the Claremont Club with a 10-8 victory over Newport Harbor paced by sophomore Colby Comstock, a 5-foot-1, 90-pound backboard who fired nothing but dinks and lobs.

Comstock first defeated a frustrated Natalie Braverman, 6-4, to give Peninsula a 4-2 first-round lead. Then, she ended her day--hobbling on a hyper-extended left knee--with a match-clinching defeat of Chelsea Godbey, 6-0.

“When people play me, they really have to keep their head intact,” Comstock said. “I just ran everything down and tried my hardest.”

Audra Adams, Newport Harbor’s No. 2 singles player, defeated Comstock, 7-5. But Comstock had twisted her knee and landed awkwardly early in the set. After a 10-minute break, she returned with a pad on her knee.

When Comstock took the court against Godbey, the match was tied at eight and Peninsula led by five games. Within 20 minutes, Comstock had defeated Godbey and given her team an insurmountable margin in games.

In other championship matches:

Santa Ana Mater Dei 10, Fullerton Troy 8--The Monarchs won their second consecutive Division II title by winning some key doubles sets.

Troy (20-3) had a 6-3 lead midway through the second round, but Mater Dei (20-2) quickly turned the tide of the match with two consecutive victories in doubles.

North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake 10, Laguna Hills 8--Singles players from Harvard-Westlake blew through the Laguna Hills lineup in slightly more than an hour, leading the second-seeded Wolverines to their third Division III title this decade.

Stephanie Berg, Jessica Leek and Alexandra Maclennan dropped only two games in singles for nine quick points. Added to Chelsea Dillion and Chelsea Heller’s first-round doubles victory, those points gave the Wolverines (16-1-1) all they needed.

Calabasas 10, San Marino 8--Calabasas (20-3) swept all nine doubles sets to beat the defending-champion Titans (18-5-1) for the Division IV title.

Calabasas also picked up one singles victory when No. 1 player Erin Everly beat San Marino’s No. 3 player, Stacey Cheung, 6-1. The win was key because it came before the Coyotes had wrapped up their doubles sweep.

Laguna Beach 11, Carpinteria Cate 7--Top-seeded Laguna Beach (14-8) won its second consecutive Division V championship behind singles players’ Ashley Maddocks, Lindsey Butterwick and Camerin Barron-Sandman.

Barron-Sandman’s second-round victory over Millary Ng might have been the turning point.