By Pete Borello
A confident Corinne Mansourian said Menlo would need to play really well to beat her Pinewood School girls in the Central Coast Section team championship.
That’s exactly what the Knights did, beating the Panthers 6-1 Nov. 14 at Courtside Club in Los Gatos.
Top-seeded Menlo (30-1) clinched the title - the team’s fifth in a row - in just an hour and half. Knights coach Bill Shine, who once coached at Pinewood, said his team was motivated by public comments Mansourian made the day before regarding Pinewood’s ability to beat his team.
Although the third-seeded Panthers (21-1) lost five of the individual matches in straight sets, Mansourian wasn’t disappointed with their play.
“We lost some really close sets and gave them a good match,” the coach said. “It was a great step and we hope to get back to the finals the next couple of years.”
As long as No. 1 player Lejla Hodzic sticks around, Pinewood should certainly rank among the top contenders for the crown. The sophomore posted the Panthers’ lone victory in the final, beating Ashley Lipton 6-3, 7-5.
Undefeated Hodzic, playing with a sore shoulder that forced her to serve underhand at times, came from behind to capture the second set.
“Lejla’s playing a little stiff due to her injury,” Mansourian said during the match. “She’s trying to keep things smooth and not swing hard because she can’t.”
A composed Hodzic still found a way to frustrate Lipton, a junior who loudly berated herself throughout the match for missing shots and not getting to balls.
Hodzic wasn’t the only Panther playing hurt. No. 4 player Liz Ashby, a sophomore, played through a multitude of aches and pains during her match, a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Katie Hudson.
“I’ve been going through a lot of injuries and they all flared up today,” said Ashby, suffering from two sprained wrists and various muscle pulls. “I also wasn’t real confident with my shots and serves because they weren’t going in during warm-ups.”
The longest match of the day came at No. 3 doubles, where Pinewood’s team of Kristen Egan-Cassie Baze took Menlo’s Andrea Schulz-Kate Serrurier to three sets before falling 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.
The title-clinching match finished about 15 minutes earlier, as Priyanka Goel-Justine Fonte beat Pinewood’s Irene Guerra-Anne Yeh 7-5, 7-5.
The shortest match of the day: Tiffany Lee’s 6-0, 6-0 rout of Pinewood senior Paula Lea at No. 2 singles, which took less than an hour.
Pinewood, champions of the Private Schools Athletic League, advanced to the final round by beating No. 7 Palo Alto 4-2 Nov. 13 at Courtside. The Panthers won three singles matches, including Hodzic’s 6-2, 6-0 victory over Megan Martin.
By placing among the top two in the CCS, Pinewood advanced to last weekend’s NorCal tournament in Alameda. The Panthers reached Saturday’s final, where they again lost to Menlo 6-1.
