TENNIS’ TERRIFIC TWINS : Young Schinaia Sisters Provide Irvine High a Promising Future

They are only 13 years old, but twins Milvia and Alessandra Schinaia have served notice during their first season of tennis at Irvine High School that they will be a force in Orange County interscholastic matches for the next few years.

As freshmen, the Schinaias have helped the Vaqueros to a 9-7 record (5-4 in league), and within a step of a Southern Section 4-A playoff appearance. Irvine, however, lost a playoff match Friday to El Toro that determined the third representative from the South Coast League in postseason play.

Milvia, the team’s No. 1 singles player, had a 40-11 record and Alessandra, the No. 2 singles player but a doubles player exclusively for a few nonleague matches, was 32-12. They each were 21-9 in singles in league.

Milvia will try to add another victory when she plays Dana Hills’ Anne Mall in the semifinals of the league’s individual championships Wednesday at Irvine High. Milvia defeated San Clemente’s Brogen Lefevre, 8-1 in Monday’s first round, and in the second round, she walloped Mission Viejo’s Irene Hernandez, 6-0, 6-0.

Alessandra won her first-round match, 8-1, over Corie Anderson of El Toro, then lost in the second round to to Nicole Elliott of Dana Hills, 6-0, 6-0.

Regardless of how Milvia fares, the success the sisters enjoyed in one of the premier leagues in the section already has impressed Irvine Coach Ann Gillespie.

“The South Coast League is a tough, tough league. To have the records they have means that they definitely are above-average players,” she said.

Milvia and Alessandra won’t venture to say how good they think they are, but both agree Milvia holds the edge.

“She is better. I can’t beat her. I don’t know why,” said Alessandra, the youngest by 10 minutes and, at 5-feet-3 1/2, the taller by a half-inch. “Sometimes I’m winning, but she gets mad and catches up and beats me.”

Said Milvia: “I think I’m better. I always beat her in the beginning, but now it’s getting tougher.”

The tennis awakening for Milvia and Alessandra came as 7-year-olds growing up in their native Lima, Peru. Their father, Alfieri, whose family immigrated to the South American country from Italy during his childhood, was a club player and introduced them to the sport.

He remains their coach away from school, though the girls said those training sessions are becoming more infrequent as his attempts to establish an arcade business similar to the one he owned in Peru demand more of his time. Their mother, Milvia, and 8-year-old sister, Daniela, don’t play the game.

Though they initially came to Irvine in 1980, the twins and their parents returned to Lima two years later for the birth of Daniela.

“We went back to Peru so my grandma could help with the baby,” Milvia said. “We’ve been back here since the fifth grade.”

All of which suits Alessandra just fine.

“I like living here more,” she said. “There’s nothing to see there. It’s boring.”

What is far from boring, however, is watching the girls play tennis. They possess similar styles, preferring to operate along the baseline and engage their opponents in rallies with smoothly executed ground strokes until they see an opening, rush the net, and wham!

“They are pretty aggressive, especially Milvia,” Gillespie said. “When she feels confident, she’s coming to the net quite often.”

And they also let fly with a few sparks here and there.

After a recent loss, for instance, Alessandra hurled her racket at the net and briskly walked off the court. She said afterward that losing was not the reason for her outburst.

“I’m not usually that temperamental. I thought she (opponent) cheated in a point and that got me upset,” she said.

Alessandra said she and Milvia sometimes disagree on whether shots are in or out when they play each other, but nothing gets blown out of proportion. Playing doubles against others, however, seems to spark the competitive juices a bit more.

“If we miss shots we get mad at each other. That’s why we usually don’t play doubles together any more,” Alessandra said.

And that’s part of the reason Gillespie teamed her daughter Kellie--instead of Milvia, who played nothing but singles--with Alessandra during nonleague doubles matches.

“They’ll see more doubles (next year), but not together. I would never put them in doubles together,” Gillespie said laughing.

Until then, Gillespie would like to see the girls concentrate on improving their serves, which are the weakest part of their games.

“For the level of everything else they can do, their serves need a little bit of catching up,” Gillespie said. “What they have to do is really focus on it. Then it’s just a lot of buckets of balls. That’s the one thing you can really improve on by practicing and by doing weight training.”

Milvia agrees: “My serve is not that strong. I’m trying to get better but it’s taking a long time.”

But the rest of her and Alessandra’s capabilities are convincing enough for their teammates.

“The rest of the team really admire their abilities and treat them not as freshmen but as equals,” Gillespie said.