1993 PREP PREVIEW / GIRLS TENNIS : Hawkins Seeking the Confidence to Match Her Ability

NEWPORT BEACH —  Newport Harbor’s Sarah Hawkins hopes Santa Margarita’s Tracy Keyser doesn’t take this the wrong way. But Hawkins acknowledged that her loss this summer to Keyser in the Southern California Sectionals sent her over the edge.

“I hadn’t been playing well,” Hawkins said. “I was playing really tentative tennis. And that loss to Tracy really got me thinking about my game.”

Hawkins said it wasn’t a bad loss--she was beaten 5-7, 6-3, 6-3--just an eye-opening one.

“It wasn’t frustrating,” Hawkins said. “I just needed a new point of view.”

As in, a new coach.

So Hawkins left Ed Burt, her coach of one year, for Sid Ball, who teaches at the John Wayne Tennis Club in Newport Beach.

Hawkins’ first-round loss to Keyser in the sectionals not only damaged her psyche, but also her ranking. The early-round defeat dropped Hawkins out of the top 16 in the girls’ 16 division and cost her a invitation to the USTA nationals.

So Hawkins was left with one option this summer: work with Ball on improving her tennis and regaining her confidence.

Hawkins said Ball spent much of the time fine-tuning her ground strokes, improving her serve and trying to make her more aggressive.

The change in philosophy and the hard work paid off for Hawkins in her only tournament of the summer. She reached the girls’ 18 division finals in the Bay Club tournament and appears ready for her junior year of high school tennis.

Hawkins is expecting big things from herself and her team. Newport Harbor finished third in the Sea View League last year at 11-3, behind Corona del Mar and Santa Margarita, and lost to El Toro in the first round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs.

“I think we should win league, but I’ve been told we should do it since I was a freshman,” Hawkins said. “But we have more depth this year and that should make a difference. I like a lot of the young players on our team.”

Hawkins is also looking to break into the round-of-16 in the Southern Section individual singles tournament. She lost to Mater Dei’s Erika Asmuss in the 1992 Southern Section sectional tournament.

But her loss to Asmuss, who eventually reached the individual quarterfinals, was preceded by a victory in the Sea View League finals over Santa Margarita senior Sandy Needham.

Santa Margarita Coach Doug Williams said he remembers watching Hawkins defeat Needham.

“Sandy had beaten her during the season in two previous sets, but Sarah was too much for her that day,” he said. “She’s a big hitter. And she hits a real heavy ball. That’s tough to play against.”

Charlie (Tex) Bleiker, who coaches the boys’ and girls’ tennis teams at Newport Harbor, said Hawkins’ game doesn’t mirror most of her peers.

“She’s a big, strong hitter,” he said. “She hits the ball like the boys do.”

Hawkins said she’s never known another way to play.

“I was taught to hit the ball hard,” she said. “It’s not something I just started doing.”

Bleiker said Hawkins rushes the net more frequently than most of her contemporaries.

“She loves to come to the net,” he said. “She can do that because she’s such a good athlete.”

Hawkins gets plenty of encouragement with her serve-and-volley game from teammate Mara Colaizzi, who is currently out with an elbow injury. But Hawkins said she isn’t quite as daring as a Martina Navratilova or even Colaizzi.

“I don’t have the confidence in my volleys right now to play a total serve and volley game,” she said.

Confidence was something Hawkins appeared to lack after her victory over Needham in the league finals.

“I had a good high school season and then I just kind of lost it from there,” said Hawkins, who lost her only two sets in league to Needham.

The slide started in January and didn’t end until her impressive showing at the Bay Club tournament.

“I had a bad year,” Hawkins said. “It wasn’t the worst year ever, but it wasn’t very good.”

With a new coach, a new perspective and a new game, Hawkins is hoping for her best year ever.

Girls’ Tennis at a Glance

Top players: Marcie Asch, Corona del Mar, Sr.; Barbie Bayless, Sunny Hills, Jr.; Michelle Bray, Laguna Beach, So.; Rachel Buenviage, Brea-Olinda, Sr.; Mara Colaizzi, Newport Harbor, Sr.; Faye DeVera, Villa Park, Fr.; Kelly Foster, Edison, So.; Brandi Freudenberg, El Modena, Jr.; Amanda Hastings-Phillips, Laguna Beach, So.; Sarah Hawkins, Newport Harbor, Jr.; Ashley Jensen, Santa Margarita, Fr.; Janaye Johnson, El Toro, Sr.; Tracy Keyser, Santa Margarita, So.; Elizabeth Kozma, Brea-Olinda, Sr.; Kate Kunath, El Toro, Sr.; Tara Kuhnert, Laguna Beach, Sr.; Amy Medlin, El Modena, So.; Holly Meyers, Marina, Sr.; Alison Miller, Los Alamitos, Jr.; Jayne Nichols, University, Jr.; Cheri Ota, Mater Dei, Sr.; Jane Park, Foothill, Sr.; Dana Rudolph, Sunny Hills, Jr.; Veronica Selby, Los Alamitos, Sr.; Ashley Smith, Laguna Beach, Sr.; Elizabeth Stevens, Dana Hills, Sr.; Lindsay Weiss, So., Laguna Beach; Tia West, Capistrano Valley, Sr.; Erin White, Los Alamitos, So; Shannon Wilkins, University, Fr.

League favorites: Century: El Modena; Empire: Los Alamitos; Freeway: Sunny Hills; Garden Grove: La Quinta; Olympic: Orange Lutheran; Orange: Brea-Olinda; Pacific Coast: Laguna Beach; Sea View: Santa Margarita; South Coast: Dana Hills; Sunset: Edison.

Key dates: Southern Section individual sectionals, Nov. 20; Southern Section team finals, Nov. 23; Southern Section individual finals, Dec. 2-3.

Notes: Ellen Bryant, who coached the Corona del Mar girls’ team last year, is the new director of tennis at Newport Beach Tennis Club. Julie Slattery, a teaching pro at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Long Beach has replaced Bryant. . . . Sue Harrison has taken over for Sharon Kennedy as head coach at Mater Dei. Harrison, formerly Sue Spinner, was Kennedy’s assistant last year. . . . Park is a member of Foothill’s Academic Decathlon team. . . . Meyers, the defending singles champion in the Sunset League, is the niece of Ann Meyers Drysdale. . . . Janet Lee, the defending Southern Section individual singles champion from Palos Verdes Peninsula High, recently lost in the first round of the U.S. Open’s main draw. . . . DeVera, whose brother Jason is playing at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this year, figures to be the top freshman this season. DeVera was second in the Southern California Sectionals girls’ 14 division this summer, the best showing by any Orange County junior in the sectional tournament. . . . Four Orange County players advanced to the round-of-16 in the section individual singles tournament last season, but Freudenberg is the only one who didn’t graduate. . . . Page Bartelt, who played at Capistrano Valley High and is now a sophomore at Arizona State, reached the third round of qualifying at the Mazda Tennis Classic this summer.