Amador Valley Girls Tennis Preview: Dons Look to Return to NCS Playoffs

School: Amador Valley

Sport: Girls tennis

C0-Coaches: Claire Chinn and Chris Anne Olenic (2nd season)

2009 Results: NCS team quarterfinals. Brooke Irish (EBAL singles champion, NCS singles runner-up).

Key returners:  Brooke Irish (junior, #1 singles). Briana Sorochak (senior, singles/doubles). Jenny Yang (junior, singles/doubles)

Key matches: vs. Livermore, vs. Granada, vs. Foothill

Team website:  Click here

Quote:  "Summer challenge matches between our players in the blazing heat show us who's tough enough to compete during the season." – Claire Chinn

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Amador Valley High girls tennis finally received a long-awaited call in 2009: an invite to the North Coast Section team playoffs for the first time in program history.

"It's not because of anything I did," co-coach Claire Chinn said. "These girls are just so talented, they make the job very easy for us."

Chinn enters her second season coaching varsity, alongside Chris Anne Olenic. The duo helped cultivate a girls tennis renaissance at Amador, thanks in large part to the dominance of junior Brooke Irish.

"Brooke was ranked number one in Northern California (16 and under) last year," Chinn said. "So that made our team stronger by moving all of our players down the ladder one spot."

High school players are ranked among teammates in order of talent on a 'ladder,' so each player will face opponents with similar talent in team matches.

Irish is the top singles player at Amador and has already drawn attention from colleges around the country, including Harvard. In 2009, the five-foot-eight-inch singles star took the East Bay Athletic League crown and finished runner-up in the NCS singles tournament.

But Irish can't carry Amador alone. In fact, she only plays half of the high school team schedule because of her commitments to private coaching, recruiting visits and tournaments across the country, including United States Tennis Association national events, where she matches up against adults.

"Our girls have learned to play with and without Brooke, which makes us a stronger team," Chinn described. "We can definitely carry the load when she's not here."

Senior Briana Sorochak and junior Jenny Yang are up to the task. They were the Dons' top doubles team last season. But Sorochak and Yang are also ready for a move back to singles.

"We're both competing on the singles ladder, but in the end, we'll do what helps the team most, whether it's singles or doubles." Yang said.

This season, a second-straight trip to the NCS playoffs hinges on Amador's play in matches against bottom feeders in the EBAL standings.

"It's all about wins against teams in our league we should beat, like Livermore and Granada," said Sorochak. "That's how we make it back to the NCS playoffs as a team."

But ask any high school athlete in Pleasanton to name the biggest game on their schedule and the answer will always be 'Amador vs. Foothill.'

"We circle Foothill," Sorochak said. "We even have a huge pasta feed to get ready for it."

"It's like an animalistic feast to get pumped up for that Foothill match," Chinn laughed.

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