Lipton and teammate Jennifer Lu each played their way into the singles finals in the tournament, then battled it out for two nights before Lipton ultimately won the crown with a thrilling 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory.

The tourney actually began on Nov. 4 when both Lipton and Lu won early-round matches at Los Altos to advance to the semi-final round on Nov. 5. Lipton handled Julia Gast of Saratoga 6-2, 6-0 and Lu beat Serena Lin of Saratoga 6-4, 7-5 in the semi's to advance to the finals later that day.

And that's when the real tennis began.

Lu, the league's defending singles champion and the No. 3 seed in the tournament, won the first set 6-3, then Lipton, the No. 1 seed, came back to take the second set 6-3.

Lu took a 2-1 lead in the third set before darkness brought a premature end to the championship match.

The two Matadors returned to the court a day later to resume their battle, and Lu opened up a 5-4 lead to go to match point. Lipton fought off two match points in the third and final set before pulling out a 7-5 victory to win the crown.

It was the third league championship in as many years for Lipton. She was the Peninsula Schools Athletic League singles champion at Menlo School as a freshman before teaming with Carmen Seremeta to win the De Anza Division doubles crown last year. Lipton and Seremeta went on to become a Central Coast Section doubles champ as well in 2002.

The Monta Vista doubles team of senior Dana Popescu and freshman Christina Yee also played for a league title last week, but lost in the finals to a Palo Alto pair.

Yee and Popescu played their way into the semifinals, where they battled from behind for an 0-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory over Saratoga's Nicole Lowe and Tarini Ullal. A match later, though, they lost a tight 6-2, 7-5 decision to Palo Alto.

The Monta Vista duo of Vidya Dabir and Jennifer Chui, both freshmen, also made it to the semi-final round before losing tough 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 nod to Paly. Dabir and Chui came right back to beat Ullal and Low 6-2, 6-2 to clinch third place.

Monta Vista will now advance to the CCS tournaments in both team and individual play.

The Matadors, 18-0 for the year, open play in the team tournament this week. Monta Vista will host the Leland (14-1)­Homestead (12-0) first-round winner on Nov. 12, 2:30 p.m. With a win, the Matadors will be home again on Nov. 14, 2:30 p.m., for the quarterfinals.

The semifinals are set for Nov. 17, noon and 2 p.m., at the Courtside Tennis Club in Los Gatos with the finals at 2 p.m. on Nov. 19 at Courtside.

Lu, Lipton, Yee and Popescu will likely make up the top four singles spots for the Matadors with Dabir and Chui, Taskeen Bains and Gungeet Bains and Christine Kao and Jackie Hsu competing in doubles play.

Lipton and the Yee-Popescu pair will advance to CCS in singles and doubles play on Nov. 24 at Courtside.

Lipton, seeded No. 2 in the singles tourney, will open against Nicole Cummings of Monterey, and Yee and Popescu will meet up with a doubles team from Aptos. Lu is the singles alternate for the CCS tourney and Dabir and Chui are the doubles alternates.

Jennifer Sum and Dana Seifert of Homestead will play in the CCS doubles tournament after winning the El Camino Division pairs crown. They open against Harker Academy on Nov. 24 at Courtside.

Sum and Seifert cruised past a Fremont duo 6-2, 6-1 in the El Camino doubles tournament, then handled a Santa Clara pair 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) to clinch the division title in the tournament played at Mountain View.

Homestead's Susan Paikin played her way into the singles finals before losing 6-0, 6-1. Paikin had beaten one Santa Clara player 6-2, 6-2 in the semifinals before losing to another in the title match.

Homestead won the El Camino Division team championship to earn its place in the CCS team tournament this week.

Volleyball

The CCS volleyball tournaments begin this week, and Homestead and Lynbrook are set to open play in Division II action.

The Vikings, the No. 9 seed with a 15-11 season record, will open at Westmont (23-13) and the Mustangs, the No. 10 seed and 20-17 for the year, will open at Leigh (24-13). Both matches begin at 7 p.m. on Nov. 12.

The Lynbrook-Westmont winner will move on to Leland on Nov. 15, 5 p.m., to face No. 1 seed Mitty (27-3), and the Homestead-Leigh winner will advance to the quarterfinals at No. 2 Los Gatos (30-4) at Aptos on Nov. 15, 1 p.m.

Homestead wrapped up the El Camino Division season with a 25-18, 25-21, 25-16 win over Fremont last week. The Mustangs ended up 8-4 in division play while the Firebirds finished 5-7. Fremont was 8-13 for the season.

The same day, Lynbrook whipped Cupertino 25-20, 25-19, 25-10 to finish 6-6 in the division. Cupertino was 2-10 and 8-20 overall.