The matchup was familiar and so was the outcome Thursday afternoon in the City Section Open Division boys’ tennis final at Balboa Sports Center in Encino.
Top-seeded Palisades won its 16th consecutive title — the longest active streak by any team in any sport in the section — and 41st overall with a 23-6.5 triumph over Granada Hills, which was unable to pull off an upset without top player Kristian Sharma, who was ineligible.
The schools were facing off in the finals for the 10th straight time, the last seven in the Open Division, and the Dolphins took command early by sweeping all seven matches (four singles, three doubles) in the first rotation. Palisades clinched victory before the third-seeded Highlanders notched their first point.
“To win 16 in a row is hard to believe,” Palisades head coach Bud Kling said upon being doused with a bucket of water after collecting his 53rd City title (32 with the boys, 21 with the girls) since taking over the program in 1979. “Granada Hills has been a formidable opponent over the last decade or more but every team has a down year here and there. We’ve been the underdog three or four times during this run and managed to find a way to win.”
UC Santa Barbara-bound senior Lorenzo Brunkow won his first three sets, 6-2, 6-0, 6-0, before being subbed out in the last rotation. No. 2 player Neel Joshi also cruised in his first three sets, 6-1, 6-1, 6-0, before he was replaced and the Dolphins’ No. 1 doubles team of Caleb Scott and Max May took their first two sets, including the title-clincher, then watched freshmen Bennett Murphy and Josh Glaser prevail in a tiebreaker in round three. The No. 3 duo of Tristan Kiperman and Zach Stuffman got an unexpected 1½ points by surprising Granada Hills’ No. 1 tandem of William Stanfield and Ashton Park, 6-3. Even using reserve players with the match already decided, Palisades took four of the last seven sets.
“All credit to Palisades … they were the better team today,” Highlanders coach Troy Aiken said.
Christian Camarillo, who has won the last two City individual doubles titles with different partners, lost to Brunkow (the reigning City singles champion) but swept his last three singles sets, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1.
Granada Hills senior Christian Camarillo won three of his four singles sets during the City Section Open Division boys’ team final at Balboa Sports Center in Encino.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Palisades’ latest dynasty started in 2009 with a nearly identical 26.5-3 victory over Granada Hills, which has yet to win a City boys’ title.
Kling, who lost his home in the Palisades fire, is the winningest high school tennis coach in state history, having amassed more than 1,440 victories.
“We graduate seven starters so next spring is going to be a rebuilding year,” he said. “We’ll see if we can keep [the streak] going.”
