It was déjà vu all over again. Twice.

In this, the second consecutive rendition of “forward into the past”, join me as I return to the Claremont Club, in the shade of the majestic San Gabriel mountain range. Back in June I had traveled to see the CIF Southern Section Boys Tennis Championships, and now for the second time in three days, I was on a mission to see if the Girls Championships could one-up the boys in terms of athletic drama.

One thing immediately apparent on my arrival was that the girls could one-up the boys in terms of athletic spectators.

In my last visit, I was met with a robust selection of available parking spots, all within a short stroll of the tennis courts. I chose something from the “shady” collection and wandered in.

This time around, despite arriving at an earlier hour, and with only two of the five Division Championships set to begin, I was shown simply…the satellite lot. It was sufficiently far enough away from the tennis courts to make me wonder whether it was even on the Claremont Club property. I had to park between two buses, for crying out loud! Is this any way to treat an old friend?

But you take the bad with the good, because another difference I noticed immediately was tremendously enhanced signage. Truth be told, there were actually just two signs, but that was two more than were there in June. And one directed me to the restrooms – a strong value-add since it had been a two-Starbucks drive.

Refreshed, I set about reorienting myself to the facility and figuring out where to go to see what. The “what” was the easy part. With sincere apologies to the other talented teams in attendance, I had come to see the titanic Division 1 Championship pitting the Dana Hills Dolphins against the Campbell Hall Vikings.

The “where” turned out to be the very same cluster of courts at which I had spent the majority of my time in June. The same cluster that featured no discernible courtside seating – a situation made worse this time around as a result of the much larger audience.

It was like watching a sporting event in a crowded subway car. Or an elevator. With a little imagination however, you could scout out a vaguely butt-conforming rock and make yourself right at home. Which I did, and given my past experience with these rocks, I made a much more informed choice this time around.

         

And to be honest, having circulated through the rest of the facility on my previous visit, I was thankful for my rock. At least it afforded me potential access to four matches. I could sit and watch one match right in front of me in the near court, and monitor the match going on in the far court at the same time. And if I stood up and shamelessly jockeyed for position, the same scenario was visible on the two courts behind me.

But enough about me and my rock – let’s talk tennis.

To bring you fully up to speed, here’s the 411 (as I believe the youngsters sometimes say) on how team tennis competitions are scored.

The overall match consists of 18 points, one for each individual match played. Half of those 18 matches feature singles play and half involve doubles. Each of the nine “starting” players on a team is either pre-paired as part of a doubles team, or assigned to singles play.

Round-robin play pits each single against the other team’s three singles players, and each doubles team against their opponent’s full roster of doubles. If the score is tied 9-9 after all 18 matches have been decided, the team that has won the most aggregate games across the 18 matches is awarded the championship. Got it? Good. Now let’s meet the teams.

The mere presence of Campbell Hall in a Division 1 Championship presented an intriguing scenario. Located in North Hollywood, the enrollment of this private school is little more than 500 students. But they are a decided heavyweight when it comes to girls tennis. Coming into this Championship, the Vikings were riding a 33-match winning streak that extended back into the previous season.

Dana Hills had more than a little “court cred” going for them as well. One of only two teams ever to win back-to-back CIF Southern Section Division 1 Championships, this was the Dolphins’s fourth consecutive trip to the finals.

These two teams were no strangers to each other. In a non-league regular season match in September, Campbell Hall had prevailed 10-8, tagging Dana Hills with their only loss of the year. That slim 10-8 margin was, ironically enough, the same score by which Campbell Hall had earned its 2009 championship. Their opponent in that epic match? The Dana Hills Dolphins.

The ladies were familiar with each other.    

Along with many of the differences between the Boys Championship and this one, there was one marked similarity – the same heart-on-sleeve emotion, and the same bland acceptance of outbursts of temper and other petulant behavior.

Not fifteen minutes into the first doubles match I saw, I witnessed my first racket heave of the day. I hadn’t had enough time to evaluate the tennis skills of the players involved, but I can tell you one thing – Margot, a young player from Dana Hills certainly has a great arm!

It was a teachable moment for all concerned, but the crowd double-faulted miserably on the opportunity. Their reaction? “Come on Margot, you can do it!”, “That’s OK, you’ll get the next point!” and other affirming shouts. OK then.

I admit it. I’m old-fashioned (or as The Bird delights in calling it, “crotchety”) when it comes to this topic. But the tacit acceptance of this lack of sportsmanship and self-control bothers me. Thankfully, tennis is the only sport that I’ve covered at the high school and collegiate level in which this type of boorish behavior has reared its ugly head. In fact, I’ve been particularly struck by how respectful high school athletes are of each other, despite the generally opposite behavior exhibited by their supposed “role models”, the pros.

Whatever else the consequences (or lack thereof) were though, it did help me out considerably. From that point on I had a strong rooting interest in support of Campbell Hall.  

I couldn’t help but be impressed by one particular player in that match, or throughout the day, for that matter – Campbell Hall’s Alexis Pereria. In addition to displaying an extremely powerful game, she was completely unflappable under pressure. I had been aware that Campbell Hall had two seniors who had earned scholarships to big-time collegiate programs, and naturally assumed that Ms. Pereria was one of the two. Imagine my surprise when I was told that she was a freshman. I’m thinking that the Viking’s transfer of leadership will be fairly seamless.

Going into the third stanza of round-robin play, Campbell Hall had carved out a slim 7-5 lead. From my rock, I then enjoyed a perfect view of two Dana Hills doubles wins that ostensibly served to tie up the match. So naturally I was a little confused when, shortly after the conclusion of those matches, there was a mass exodus of Dolphin fans.

I hadn’t heard any significant fan outbursts from any of the nearby courts, so when I rose to check out play elsewhere I was surprised to find that only one match was still in progress – a singles contest that appeared to be drawing little supporting urgency from the onlookers.

If that wasn’t confusing enough, I was completely baffled when Campbell Hall’s Conner Calabro hit a return shot into the net and then dropped her racquet before being engulfed by teammates as they swarmed the court. Was this some kind of unprecedented show of support for a teammate who had just suffered an excruciatingly close loss?

Well actually, no.

It took me a few minutes to figure it all out, but apparently Campbell Hall had crisply walked away with all three of the matches that had been out of my field of vision. Therefore, Calabro’s loss to Dana Hills’ Rebecca Winkle had merely served to make the final score 10-8 as opposed to 11-7.

Yes, Campbell Hall 10 and Dana Hills 8. For the third straight time.

OK, maybe Dana Hills does have a little racquet-throwing coming to them.

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