USD Women’s Tennis Follows One Tough Act With Another

A team following a team that has been labeled the best is not always in an enviable position.

The 1928 Yankees won 101 games, but you don’t hear or read about them often.

The 1990 University of San Diego women’s tennis team thus had its work cut out for it after the 1989 Toreras completed the program’s best season ever.

The ’89 team developed from one that had a 4-26 record in 1986. It went 18-8 and was both nationally ranked (in the low-to-mid teens) and an NCAA tournament participant for the first time.

Coach Sherri Stephens added pressure to the 1990 team by upgrading the schedule to include 17 ranked teams after losing 60% of her players, including ace Jennifer Larking.

Because of those things, Stephens said, “I was really worried how this team would respond.”

Well, thanks to returners Aby Brayton, Tonya Fuller, Sakolwan Kacharoen and Christy Drage (a Mission Bay graduate), the Toreras have responded. They are ranked 15th heading into the West Coast Conference championships today through Sunday in Moraga.

The ratings slightly favor USD over defending champion Pepperdine, ranked 18th. The Toreras’ 11-11 record is deceptive because of the tough schedule, which includes victories over six ranked teams, including Pepperdine, No. 13 San Diego State and No. 20 U.S. International.

Barring a collapse or drastic oversight, USD figures to make a return trip to Gainesville, Fla., for the NCAA tournament May 10-19.

In an April 7 victory over Brigham Young (then ranked 14th), Brayton, Fuller and Kacharoen demonstrated their varying styles and the close-knit team’s determination.

BYU’s Mary Beth Young, then ranked 17th, tried everything imaginable to disrupt the rhythm of Brayton and avoid an upset.

Brayton, a senior who had defeated previously unbeaten and No. 1 Sandra Birch of Stanford the week before, had Young talking to herself while Brayton took the first set, 7-6 (7-2).

“Wake up. Come on,” Young said.

Players normally make their own line calls, but after Brayton assumed control in the second set, Young requested an umpire, even though there had been few close calls.

After Brayton took a 2-1, 40-love lead in the second set, a slight drizzle began. While none of the other matches were halted and no one in the stands headed for cover, Young said she was slipping and asked for a delay.

The umpire determined that you could count the drops coming down and said play would continue.

A few minutes later, Brayton walked away with 7-6, 6-4 victory.

Said Brayton, “Things like that used to bother me. But now I just laugh it off.

“I’ve learned to play the game, not the person.”

Despite her big upsets, a 12-9 record and a No. 54 ranking at the end of ‘89, Brayton has been mysteriously overlooked in the ratings this year.

Again, she said, those things used to bother her. But now she just smiles and shrugs.

Maturity, Stephens said, is Brayton’s biggest ally.

Fuller, who alternates with Brayton at No. 1 singles, played Anna Funderburk of BYU. She won, 6-2, 7-5, and Funderburk didn’t know what had hit her, primarily because she rarely knew where Fuller was hitting.

“Half the time, I don’t know where the ball is going myself,” Fuller joked.

A junior, Fuller handles a racket like a baseball batter with an inside-out swing. With hands pulled tight, she appears to awkwardly play the ball too close to her body.

The only thing she seems to do gracefully is turn the numbers on the scoreboard in her favor.

“They make fun of me because I’m a little uncoordinated,” she said.

Perhaps, but she wins. She’s 19-7 with a No. 54 ranking.

Kacharoen--known around USD as Tuck--is a 5-foot-2 sophomore from Bangkok. She disposed of BYU’s Sherri Yandle, 6-3, 6-1, in less than an hour. Quick matches are nothing new to Tuck, who has been putting away opponents early all season. She has been pushed to three sets only twice while compiling a 15-8 record.

The secret, she says, is in her head and experience. “My body is small, and I can’t bang the ball against the bigger players. That (would be) dumb,” she said.

Case in point: Anna Brunstrom, Pepperdine biggest player, defeated Tuck four times last season. Tuck is 2-0 against her this year.