SOUTHERN SECTION TENNIS / 2-A DIVISION TEAM FINAL : Quartz Hill Stuns Harvard to Claim 1st Championship

There was disbelief on both sides after Quartz Hill High upset Harvard-Westlake, 10-8, to win the boys’ Southern Section 2-A Division tennis title Wednesday at Palmdale High.

In winning their first boys’ tennis championship, the second-seeded Rebels ended the top-seeded Wolverines’ streak of consecutive titles at five.

Quartz Hill’s players seemed almost shocked by their victory. “Did we win the Southern Section (title)?” an incredulous Kenny Park asked his teammates shortly before the awards ceremonies.

Meanwhile, Harvard’s Jeremy Steckler broke one racket and tossed another across the court.

Quartz Hill’s Anand Shah, said he felt “shock. It was supposed to be the impossible, but it came true.”

It came down to a final, dramatic doubles showdown between Park and Charlie Stoll and Steckler and Chuck Tseng.

A victory for Harvard would have tied the overall score, 9-9, and given the Wolverines the title because they had won more games.

But Park and Stoll rebounded from a 5-2 deficit to send it into a tiebreaker. They won the set, 7-6 (6-3).

That Stoll and Park wrapped up the title for Quartz Hill underscored the unlikelihood of an upset: Stoll is a freshman and Park a junior. The pair had not played together in doubles until the playoffs.

“We didn’t have any idea we were going to beat Harvard,” Stoll said. “We just came in here and gave them the best we could.”

Quartz Hill won six of nine singles matches. Owen Goudie (69-3) won each of his three matches and silenced J.W. Hobson, 6-0. Hobson had won two earlier matches.

Shah won two singles matches for Quartz Hill. Two Rebel doubles teams also won twice: Park-Stoll and Richard Harper-Joe Beard.

The Wolverines’ best player did not compete. Philip Tseng, Chuck’s older brother, aggravated a back injury during the individual tournament last Saturday. Tseng, who reached the semifinals, has been bothered by the problem for more than a month.

“Quartz Hill played well,” Hobson said. “The fact that Philip wasn’t there doesn’t take anything away from what they did. You have to play through things.”

The Wolverines (17-3) had won the past three 3-A titles after moving from the 1-A Division. Next year they will play as a 3-A team.

Quartz Hill (24-0) has blossomed under fourth-year Coach Bill Lenaway. It reached the semifinals for the first time last season.