THE
POINT
PALOS VERDES HIGH SCHOOL - ISSUE 3, VOLUME 29 - DECEMBER 13, 2024
Sea King State Champions PVHS Students’ Athletic Success Earns Multiple CIF, State Titles Girls Tennis Wins CIF Open Division Regional, State Titles By Aaron Propst sports editor Palos Verdes Girls tennis has taken the nation by storm this season, winning the Southern California Girls Regional and State Tennis Championships and simultaneously earning the number one ranking in the nation by USTA. Early in the season, Caroline Chu and Aileana McFerson clinched the Golden State classic with a great win over one of Harvard Westlake’s top teams. “My goal coming into the season was to play at the highest level I could,” said senior captain Chu. “I wanted to... just play our best regardless of the rankings.” Following that, they won the Point Loma invitational. “We had just had a big win over Canyon Crest and found ourselves all tied up in the Point Loma Invitational finals versus Portola,” said head coach Wade Murphy. “It was getting dark as the girls went into a third set tiebreaker, everyone was watching.” Stella Morgan and McFerson
clinched this third and final set to earn the title of tournament champions. All of the hard fought battles against top competition prepared them for the rollercoaster that would be the CIF Open Division playoffs. Consequently, it also earned them the number one
ranking in the country. “We’ve really worked hard as a team to block out all the noise and reduce the pressure of being ranked so high,” said coach Wade Taylor. “We have a saying, ‘shields up.’ Nothing gets to our heads, not any officials, calls, fans, ranking, anything.”
The team brought this attitude into the Open Division championship against Portola. They took the long trip to Redlands just to find themselves being rained on in the middle of the games. Due to this, they had to reschedule the conclusion for a later date. The team showed major resilience and composure, returning to Redlands and winning the first open division championship in the history of PVHSl. This victory meant that they had advanced to the State Championship against the Northern California champion, Los Altos. Palos Verdes won 5-2 to secure the title of State Champions. “The best part of this season is obviously how far we’ve come,” said junior Sofia LeGallo. “It’s kind of hard to wrap my head around the fact that we’re number one in the nation and State Champions,” said LeGallo. “I’m so proud of my teammates and this team overall.”
(Photo courtesy of Girls Varsity Tennis)
Freshman Rina Kawasaki Wins Individual CIF State Championship By Olivia Kao editor-in-chief Freshman Rina Kawasaki made Sea King history as the third female athlete from PVHS to ever win an individual state championship in any sport. Kawasaki won first place in the individual CIF State Championship at San Gabriel Country Club on Wednesday, November 20. Seven years of golfing experience and hours of practice led Kawasaki to her season of success. “I prepared by practicing a lot and practicing a lot of real life scenarios,” said Kawasaki. The golfer’s win not only puts Kawasaki in the history books for PVHS, but the greater South Bay as well. Kawasaki is the first golfer
from Palos Verdes to win the individual state title and first from the South Bay since 2013. “I feel proud that I was able to rep PVHS at state and become champion.”
Kawasaki at the CIF State Girls High School Championship (Photo courtesy of Rina Kawasaki)
To read more about our CIF Champions, go to page 10 for Football and Girls Volleyball
Winter Wonderland: Spirit Week, Class Comp By Ethan Woo reporter
“Spirit week is meant to get everyone excited and ready for Spirit Week at PVHS is really class comp,” said senior class special for some students and president Nick Kouzmanoff. introduces a lot of competition The activities included Merry between each class year. Monday, where students wear “Class comp started about 10 Christmas colors like green and years ago, and we borrowed red; Toasty Tuesday encouraging it from South High,” said ASB students to wear their ugly advisor Jama Maxfield. sweaters; Winter Wonderland “We thought that it would be Wednesday where students a really good way to bring the wore blue and white; Thursday, classes together to work for a class comp so students wear common goal together.” their class colors; and ending Before each class comp, ASB Frosty Friday with an ice skating plans to get everyone ready with fundraiser. Spirit Week. Activities included a relay race while wearing winter attire, 2x4 ski race, sleigh race for hungry hungry hippo, eggnog chugging contest, and finishing the winter song lyrics. “The seniors are anticipated to win and have the lead but the freshmen are hanging in,” said Kouzmanoff. Mrs. Lancey high-fives a student Seniors won the
relay race, freshmen won hungry hungry hippo, juniors won the 2x4 ski race and the sophomores won none of the games. There were two ties between the freshmen and seniors in finishing the lyric and eggnog challenge. The seniors and freshmen tied during the eggnog challenge leaving the winner of the challenge unknown. “Since we had a football game on Saturday, they didn’t want us to get sick,” said freshman competitor in final class comp tie, Weston Reis. “When and if the tiebreaker game does happen, I think I will have a good chance if it’s not eggnog again...but they haven’t really said anything about it yet,” said Reis. This year’s class comp is a pretty competitive one as the freshmen are winning due to the attendance scores.
Class comp competitors participate in an eggnog drinking challenge (Photos by Charlie Russo) “When I heard I tied Klink, I was really excited as I did not think I was going to win and it was pretty funny competing and all,” said Reis. Right now it can be hard for most people at PVHS to determine who would win it all. “Usually it is the seniors that make it obvious that they’re
gonna win, so this year it’s kind of surprising, but the freshmen have a big class so at the same time it’s not that surprising with their results,” said Kouzmanoff. “But I can bet that the seniors will come out with the win in the end.”