SOUTHERN SECTION 2-A GIRLS’ TENNIS PLAYOFFS : Sunny Hills Wins First Title by Beating Los Alamitos Again

CLAREMONT —  When the Southern Section Division 2-A girls’ tennis pairings were announced this month, some questioned the seeding of Sunny Hills High School in the No. 2 slot behind Empire League champion Los Alamitos.

Perhaps those folks had a crystal ball.

Sunny Hills made believers out of a lot of people by defeating Los Alamitos, 12-6, in the division’s championship match Tuesday at the Claremont Tennis Club.

The title was the first for the girls’ team in the school’s history. And with it, the Lancers (23-2) proved that their nonleague victory over Los Alamitos (15-3) in the regular season was no fluke.

They didn’t have to prove it to their coach, Scott Penner, although just about now he’s tickled they did.

“I thought we could win it,” he said.

As it frequently happens in high school tennis, the match was decided in the doubles sets after the teams had played basically on even terms in the singles sets.

Sunny Hills moved out to a 5-1 lead in sets after two rounds of doubles play, led by its No. 1 team of Chyra Redman and Hilary Carlson, and by the No. 2 tandem of Courtney Cates and Amie Winn.

Redman and Carlson swept their sets, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6, and Cates and Winn won theirs, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4, to give Sunny Hills a 7-2 advantage in doubles.

In singles, Sunny Hills got an exceptional performance from its top player, Norwegian exchange student Kaja Dehli, who won her sets, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Dehli is ranked fourth in Norway in the 18-and-under division.

“Our doubles have done well all year,” said Scott Penner, the Sunny Hills coach. “Our No. 1 singles (Dehli) has gotten better and better. She’s a clay court player and it took her a while to get used to the cement courts.”

The one bright spot for Los Alamitos in singles was senior Laura Brun, the Empire League’s individual champion. She defeated Karen Galvin and Nandita Sapra to pick up half of the singles victories for Los Alamitos.