MAKING A RACKET

Most of the time, Rani Setiawati is quiet and shy.

She lets her tennis racket do the talking, and lately, the Glendale College freshman has been making a lot of noise with it.

“She doesn’t mess around,” said Karoline Tomicich, Setiawati’s doubles partner with the Vaqueros. “Another player asked me once after a match, ‘Does anybody ever win any games off her?’ ”

It hasn’t happened much in the last two weeks.

Setiawati appears on her way to adding an Ojai tournament championship to the Western State Conference title she won last week.

“I would love that,” Setiawati said. “I just do the best that I can.”

Setiawati, 18, who emigrated from Indonesia in August, won the WSC women’s singles title last Saturday with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Shannon Bates of Bakersfield in the final.

She lost only four games in five conference-tournament matches and is ranked No. 6 in the state among junior college women’s players.

As the Vaqueros’ No. 1 player this season, Setiawati (15-1) has lost only a nonconference match to Sophie Han of Rio Hondo. Glendale (12-3) finished second to Bakersfield in conference play.

In the Ojai doubles tournament, Setiawati and Tomicich advanced to today’s quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Michelle Hammond and Tanya Leontieff of College of the Sequoias on Friday. Setiawati also advanced to the singles quarterfinals, beating Ivy Dipasupil of Chula Vista Southwestern, 6-3, 6-0.

“She’s just a very solid player,” Glendale Coach Terry Coblentz said of Setiawati. “She’s a very even-keeled kid. She’s added so much to the team in terms of stability and maturity.”

Setiawati came to the United States at the suggestion of an older sister who attends the Art Center Institute in Pasadena. They live together in Glendale.

“We never speak [English] at home,” Setiawati said. “I was so quiet at first when I got here.

“Back home, I knew everything, and here, I feel I don’t know anything and I can’t go anywhere on my own.”

Setiawati is learning fast, though, Tomicich said.

“She used to be really quiet,” Tomicich said. “Now she’s opening up.”

Tennis has helped Setiawati adjust to a new environment. She has played for seven years, and wound up on the Glendale women’s team at the suggestion of Coblentz, who first spotted her in a physical education class.

“I asked her if she’d like to come out,” Coblentz said. “It wasn’t a hard sell.”

Setiawati wasn’t a hard sell for her new teammates, either.

“We were getting ready for our first match this season,” Tomicich said. “We all sat in a circle and [Coblentz] said, “OK, let’s go over our lineup. Who’s at No. 1?’

“We all knew. Everybody just pointed at Rani.”

Setiawati didn’t say anything.

Her racket had already done all the talking.