Vaughn Wise Beyond Her Years On Court : Tennis: Freshman has a strong mental approach to the game.

At 14, Corona del Mar’s Nina Vaughan is all legs, bones and--as her older opponents are quickly learning--all brains.

Having grown five inches in the last year, Vaughan is struggling to gain speed and a net game to take advantage of her 5-foot-8 frame. But Vaughan proved last Saturday in the Southern Section individual sectionals that she is not afraid to think on her big feet.

After taking an easy one-set lead, Vaughan felt the match slipping away to her best friend, Michelle Bray of Laguna Beach, who was feeling her oats and hitting winners past a stationary Vaughan.

So what does she do? She slows the pace by hitting moon balls to frustrate Bray. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t too polite, but it was effective and it got her into the round of 16 in one of Southern California’s most prestigious girls’ tournaments.

Is anyone surprised?

“She never ceases to amaze me,” said Vaughan’s mother, Debra Russell.

But Steve Weire, Vaughan’s private coach of two years, was somewhat amazed when he heard about his crafty student’s strategy.

“I couldn’t believe it when I read about Nina hitting all those moon balls,” Weire said. “She could have never done that two years ago.”

Weire said Vaughan couldn’t do much except hit the ball as hard as she could.

“She was a hard hitter, but she didn’t know how to win matches,” said Weire, who played college tennis at Northern Illinois and recently won the Southern California Sectional championship in the men’s open division. “She won on her talent, but not on her brainpower. I guess she used up all her brains in class, because she didn’t have any on the court.

“I’ve just tried to get her to think about the game, play every point like it’s your last point.”

What Vaughan has always had, according to her mother, is tremendous drive.

“It’s not just in tennis,” Russell said. “Nina is an overachiever in everything. She’s a 4.0 student who’s on the principal’s honor roll, and she’s taking all sophomore classes.”

Vaughan acknowledges that she’s a workaholic.

“I play about every day for a couple hours, but I usually take a day or two off after tournaments,” said Vaughan, who took up tennis at the age of 8 on the advice of her stepfather, Hal Russell.

Without Vaughan’s work ethic, Debra Russell said her daughter would not be ranked sixth among 14-year-olds in Southern California.

“Tennis did not come naturally to her,” said Debra Russell, who credits Vaughan’s first coach, Sam Olson, for giving her daughter a solid foundation in tennis. “That’s what floors everybody. She’s put in double and triple time to be where she is.”

Meanwhile, Vaughan’s younger sister, Nadia, puts in about half the time and is one of the top-ranked 12-year-olds in the country.

“She’s totally different than me,” Nina said. “She’s got more muscle, she comes to the net and she’s got a lot of power. She’s taken some sets off me, but she’s never beaten me in a real match.”

Debra Russell said her daughters’ matches are painful to watch.

“It brings out the best in Nadia and the worst in Nina,” she said. “Nina gets all tight and tense, and all Nadia wants to do is beat her older sister.”

Only four players have defeated Nadia’s older sister this season in team dual matches, Newport Harbor’s Sarah Hawkins, Woodbridge’s Natalie Exon twice and Laguna Beach’s Amanda Hastings-Phillips. Vaughan said she even surprised herself by winning 51 of 55 sets.

“I knew there would be tough competition,” she said. “We’re in one of the toughest leagues (the Sea View), so I didn’t expect to do as well as I did. The players are a lot more experienced, and they hit and serve a lot harder than I do.”

And Vaughan concedes, most are faster than her.

“I was never quick to begin with,” she said. “It’s been tough. Speed wasn’t one of my gifts and now that I’ve grown so fast, I’m even slower. I’ve lost countless matches because my opponent’s been faster or in better condition than me.”

But Vaughan said that might soon change when she begins working with a personal trainer on her quickness and endurance. She hopes quicker feet, will bring an improved net game.

“I’m OK once I’m at the net, it’s getting there that’s the problem,” she said. “My transition game isn’t too good. It’s tough bending over for the approach shots and then following them in fast enough.”

Said Weire: “In practice, she’s got a great net game. If she can get a big serve behind that, we’ve got her.”

But until she gets her entire package together, Vaughan will continue trying to outsmart and outwork her opponents, something Vaughan realizes will be a tough trick on Thursday at the Lindborg Racquet Club, where the section individual singles tournament takes place.

“I’m just going to say a prayer that I can win one match,” said Vaughan, who spent Thanksgiving in St. Louis playing in the girls’ 14 national indoor tournament. “That’s going to be tough tennis. That’s the best of the best.”