Zalameda Finishes With Style

It wasn’t the U.S. Open, but competing in the Southern Section individual tennis tournament proved to be just as gratifying for Riza Zalameda.

The Beverly Hills senior began the year as one of the top players in Southern California, and she ended it this month with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Villa Park senior Lindsey Nelson that cemented her reputation and gave her the Southern Section championship.

“I’m honored,” Zalameda said. “It makes the season complete.”

Zalameda won 58 of 59 sets during the season, the only setback coming against North Hollywood Campbell Hall’s Ally Krasnopolsky in a quarterfinal victory.

Zalameda led the Normans (16-3) to a berth in the Southern Section Division I championship match, where Beverly Hills fell, 11-7, to Bay League rival Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula.

“As a senior, she really did step up to put herself out there,” said Mike Margolin, Beverly Hills’ coach. “She attended a lot of practices, and I think she really wanted to connect with the team. She wanted to play the matches, play the individual tournament and win the singles title, and she did it.”

Zalameda, one of the few elite U.S. Tennis Assn. junior-circuit players who competed for her high school for four years, played in 15 of Beverly Hills’ 19 matches this season. For her efforts, she was named the team’s most valuable player and The Times’ girls’ tennis player of the year.

“I know I can come through when the team needs it,” Zalameda said. “I’m glad I played, and I know when I’m there, the other players feel a lot more secure. They even tell me that, and I really appreciate it.”

Beverly Hills advanced to division title matches every year of Zalameda’s career. Besides this year’s Division I final loss to Peninsula, the Normans fell in the Division I final to Calabasas in 2002 after winning the Division III title over Irvine Woodbridge in 2001 and the Division II title over Fullerton Troy in 2000.

“The biggest thing that Riza proved is that you can improve as much as you want and work on your game and reach all your goals, and still play for your high school team,” Margolin said.

Zalameda and doubles partner Anne Yelsey qualified for the main draw of the 2003 U.S. Open after winning the girls’ 18 doubles title at the USTA Super National Hard Court Championships in August. The pair also won the Easter Bowl/USTA Super National Spring Championships title in April, and Zalameda defeated Jessica Nguyen of Chatsworth to win the Southern California sectional singles title in June.

During high school competition, Zalameda was seldom challenged. When she was, however, she answered by raising the level of her play.

She handed Nelson (55-3) all of her losses, including a 6-2 defeat in a regular-season, round-robin set and the straight-sets loss in the singles final.

When Krasnopolsky split sets with her in their quarterfinal, Zalameda responded by ripping through the third set for the 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 decision.

She had perhaps her finest match of the season in a 6-1, 6-2 semifinal victory over Long Beach Poly freshman Vania King, ranked No. 7 nationally in the USTA girls’ 18 division.

In the section final, Nelson broke Zalameda early to take leads of 3-1 and 4-2 in the first set. Zalameda fought back to tie at 5-5, but promptly fell behind, 40-love, in game 11. But Zalameda survived triple break point, got the game to deuce and won the second of two game points to take a lead. She broke Nelson’s serve in the next game to close out the set en route to her 7-5, 6-3 victory.

“It was key for me to stay focused,” said Zalameda, who will play for UCLA next school year. “I worked hard for the points. It’s a matter of winning the key points, and I was able to do that.”

It was important to Zalameda to show that she could win the match when facing adversity.

“I try to prove to myself that I can do this,” she said.

The proof was in the championship.