Alpine Hills tennis celebrates another winning season Alpine Hills tennis celebrates another winning season (January 02, 2002)

Alpine Hills junior tennis program had lots of reason to celebrate its season at a recent banquet, attended by more than 100 people at the Portola Valley tennis and swimming club.

For starters, Alpine won the Midpeninsula Interclub Championship for the 21st straight year, sharing the overall championship with Menlo Circus Club and University Club. Alpine also won five local league titles.

In Sacramento at the Nor Cal championships, the girls 12s and 18s reached the finals while the boys 18s reached the semifinals. The boys 12s won the Nor Cal championship and moved on to win the state championships.

All team members received awards. Coaches' awards were given to: Kameryn Evans of Portola Valley, John Michael Hansen of Menlo Park, Katie Bouret of Atherton, Matt Hubbell of Redwood City, Sophia Kokores of Atherton, Chad Gibbs of Portola Valley, Liying Wang of Palo Alto, Scott Blumenkranz of Portola Valley, and David Oehm of Menlo Park. Most improved awards went to Christian Hansen of Menlo Park, William Derwin of Portola Valley and John Williford of Woodside.

The John Kaspari Spirit Award, given to the graduating players who exemplified the Portola Valley athlete's love of the game, went to Kerry Feirman, a freshman at University of California, Santa Barbara, and Carolyn Phillips a freshman at University of Colorado.

The coaching staff of Jeff Arons, Steve Deggelman, Tanya Gacs, Darren Lachtman, Corinne Mansourian, Terry Roundtree, Frank Walters, and Aoife Wilson was also recognized, said Chris Bradley, tennis program director.

Carla Blumenkranz, a freshman at Brown University, served as the junior league summer coordinator, helping organize the 150-some players from Alpine and the East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutorial program that made up the team.

The boys 12s won the USA Junior Team Tennis/NorCal Championship by defeating Courtside of Los Gatos, 6-3, in the finals at Sacramento. "This match could have gone either way," said Coach Bradley. "It was a great effort against a formidable opponent."

In the singles, Adam Davison and Ronald Wu won in straight sets with Jamie Hutter pulling out a tough 3 setter and Greg Ringold giving Alpine a 4-2 lead going into the doubles with two straight tie-breaker victories.

Ronald and Jamie clinched the victory with Adam and Daniel also winning their doubles. David McCall had two tough matches in singles and doubles. Eric Blumenkranz, BillyMcCall, John Williford and Matt Hubbell all played in Sacramento.

The boys 12s followed up their NorCal championship with a victory in the state championships at the Tiburon Peninsula Club.

The boys defeated Lido Isle Tennis Club of Newport Beach, 6-3. In singles, David McCall won by coming back in the first set and then closing out the match in the second. Jamie Hutter, Ronald Wu and Erik Blumenkranz rolled to decisive wins while Adam Davison and Daniel Goldstein, Alpine's No. 1 and 2 players, ran into two very tough opponents.

After being up 4-2 after the singles, Ronald and Jamie clinched the victory with a 6-0, 6-0 win. John Williford and David McCall won at No. 2, and Adam and Daniel played three tough sets but, after the team victory was decided, didn't pull out the third.

Billy McCall and Matt Hubbell rounded out the rest of the team in the matches at Tiburon.

This was Alpine's eighth state championship, the first since 1992, and the 14th Nor/Cal Championship. The Gar Glenney Cup, which is the perpetual trophy for the winning team from either Northern or Southern California, is on display at Alpine Hills. This was Nor Cal's fourth straight win and narrows the gap to 11-8.