THE TIMES 1995 FALL ALL-COUNTY TEAMS : DeVera Is Only One Trophy Short : Athlete of the year: Villa Park junior has another chance to win Southern Section individual title. She has won everything else.

Less than a week after her loss to Oxnard Rio Mesa’s Zuzana Stunova in the Southern Section individual final, Villa Park junior Faye DeVera already had moved on. DeVera gave herself a day to sulk, then started thinking about her accomplishments this season and looking ahead to next year.

When she reflects on her junior season, DeVera will see the section individual tournament is the only thing she didn’t win.

She won all 54 sets she played in dual matches. Her team won all 20 matches it played, including an upset of three-time defending champion Laguna Beach in the section Division II championship. She won the Century League singles title for the third year in a row.

She even won two compact discs--Strung Out and Screeching Weasel--from her brother Jason for winning the Division II title and for beating Laguna Beach’s Michelle Bray, 6-0, in the title match.

Oh yeah, she also was named The Times Orange County player of the year for the second year in a row.

“It means a lot to me,” DeVera said. “It’s a big honor to be player of the year in Orange County. It’s pretty tough. There are a lot of good players out there.”

But for two years, there have been none better than DeVera, who is 99-1 in dual matches in that time. Her only loss came to El Modena’s Brandi Freudenberg, now at UCLA.

DeVera might be joining Freudenberg. UCLA is one of the schools she’s interested in attending--Notre Dame, Arizona and Arizona State are the others on her wish list.

But before she takes her game to college, DeVera says she must make some minor adjustments.

“I need to work on my court movement,” she said. “[Stunova] got to a lot more balls than I did and she was able to do something with them when she got there.”

DeVera also feels she needs to become more comfortable at the net and get stronger in her upper body.

“It’s so much easier and fun to finish the point off at the net,” she said. “I’ve been working hard on coming in to the net more. I still haven’t perfected it though.”

Mike Nelson, DeVera’s private coach who runs a tennis academy at Ridgeline Country Club in Orange, said he expects DeVera to keep improving.

“Her serve’s a weapon now,” Nelson said. “Her net play needs to continue to improve, but we need to work on her ability to use all her shots in a close match.

“In the next six months, you’ll see a big growth in her game. She’s got a lot of confidence now.”

(C1) FALL ’95 ALL-COUNTY TEAMS: For the second consecutive season, Villa Park’s Faye DeVera, above, is The Times Orange County player of the year. Plus, the girls’ tennis all-county teams.