SOUTHERN SECTION ROUNDUP: CALABASAS JUGGLES WAY INTO FINALS.

Byline: Nevin Barich  Staff Writer

By his own admission, Calabasas High girls' tennis coach Bill Bellaty didn't get much sleep Wednesday night. Instead, he stayed up trying to figure out how his team was going to beat Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood in the Southern Section Division IV semifinals Thursday.

That middle-of-the-night strategy session paid off as the Coyotes used a tweaked lineup to outlast the Wolverines 10-8 at Calabasas High and advance to the finals for the third straight year.

Calabasas (21-0) will play top-seeded Corona del Mar of Newport Beach, an 18-0 winner over Chaminade of West Hills, in the finals Monday at Claremont Club.

Realizing the talent of Harvard-Westlake's star singles player Stephanie Berg, Bellaty purposely weakened his own singles core, moving top player Celia Durkin over to doubles despite the fact that Durkin had not been defeated in singles all season long.

``I moved Durkin figuring, for sure, doing so would give us three doubles wins,'' said Bellaty, whose team won the Division IV last season.

It turned out to be a crucial move, as Durkin and partner Chole Solomon defeated Harvard-Westlake's top doubles duo of Katelyn Rader and Shilpa Madhavun 7-5 in the final match of the day.

``It was great; that match decided who was going to win,'' Bellaty said. ``Actually, there were a lot of key matches. There was (singles player Monica) Wiesner being down against Stephanie Berg 5-2 and coming back to win 7-5. Also, two of our matches went to tiebreakers. Everything was crucial.''

Despite not having Durkin, Calabasas held up well at singles. Wiesner took two of three matches, including the upset win over Berg, and Erin Everly picked up two wins, including a 7-6 (7-4) victory over Harvard- Westlake's Jessica Leck.

But it was the doubles play that gave the Coyotes the chance to defend their title. Durkin and Solomon swept their matches and the team of Andrea Leewong and Jackie Yano won two of theirs.

``I was counting on those two (doubles teams) to get six wins and they got five,'' Bellaty said. ``That helped immensely.''

For Harvard-Westlake (16-7), which won the Division III title last season, it was a crushing loss, even more so with Berg in the lineup. When the two teams met in September, Calabasas cruised to a 13-5 win over the Berg-less Wolverines.

Berg won two matches for Harvard-Westlake, but blowing a 5-2 lead against Wiesner proved the difference in the end.

``It was frustrating; the girls gave an all-out effort,'' said Harvard-Westlake coach Kelly Rudolph. ``They really went all-out. If you think about, it almost feels like we didn't lose because we played so hard and it was so close.''

--Corona del Mar 18, Chaminade 0: The host Eagles (16-3) were no match for the Sea Queens, winning only a combined 23 games. Jen Segar came the closest to a victory for Chaminade. The Eagles' third-ranked player lost 7-5 in her third match.

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2 photos

Photo: (1) Monica Wiesner of Calabasas upset top-seeded Harvard-Westlake tennis player Stephanie Berg in the semifinals on Wednesday.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(2) Harvard-Westlake Stephanie Berg and her tennis teammates were ousted in the semifinals by Calabasas on Wednesday.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer