Glendale’s Maureen Diaz Makes College Tennis Take Notice

Opponents can blame Maureen Diaz’s sister. If Lyn Diaz hadn’t tried tennis, then given it up, maybe her younger sister never takes up the sport. Instead, she brought her game to UC Irvine.

Or maybe they can blame her father.

If he had bought her a proper racket, instead of letting her use one of his, maybe Diaz wouldn’t be that freshman with the vicious two-handed style.

Or maybe they can blame the Diaz family genes. If she had been taller, volleyball would have been her sport. Instead, she whips other players--quality players--on the tennis court.

Last Saturday, in her first college match, the Glendale resident took out USC’s Jewel Perterson, ranked fourth in the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. poll.

In three sets.

“She is like a machine,” Irvine Coach Mike Edles said. “Not too many players can stay with her from the baseline. They just can’t hit with her. She wears them down.”

Imagine what Diaz will be like as a senior. She is already ranked 79th in the ITA poll after dispatching Stanford’s Keiko Tokuda, ranked 38th, and North Carolina’s Jennifer Radman, ranked 48th, in straight sets during the Riviera All-American tournament in October.

This has been coming for a while. Diaz came to Irvine ranked No. 22 nationally in the girls’ under-18 poll and was fourth in Southern California.

Her destination after Irvine seems obvious.

“Ever since I was young, I wanted the status of being a professional player,” said Diaz, who played at Mayfield High in Pasadena.

“I would always kid around while playing with friends, ‘OK, this is match point for Wimbledon.’

“Steffi Graf is my model. I love her attitude on the court. She is always focused. She is always on her feet. You can never tell if she’s winning or losing.”

But it’s not Graf whom Edles thinks about when he watches Diaz play.

“She plays that two-handed style, like Monica Seles,” Edles said.

“She comes forehand and backhand with it. It gives her a lot of power.

“She’s quick on her feet and that gives her great advantage. She pins players at baseline and then runs them all over the place.”

Graf? Seles? What is Diaz doing at Irvine with the Australian Open already underway?

“I still have a long way to go,” Diaz said. “After college, I’ll give the pro tour a try.”

Bad news for Anteater opponents.

“The first time I saw her play, she looked like a lot of other juniors,” Edles said.

“Once I looked a little closer, I noticed the other players couldn’t stay with her. She grinds them down. They start getting a little panicky.”

This has been Diaz’s game since she first picked up a racket--her father’s--at age 10. She had some interest in the sport, having seen her sister try it for a year.

But Maureen Diaz liked volleyball. Then, two things happened.

It occurred to Diaz, who is 5 feet 4, that she was never going to be tall enough to be a volleyball player.

That was about the time her father asked her if she wouldn’t like to play a little tennis.

“I was just sitting around doing nothing, so I said, ‘Sure,’ ” Diaz said. “I remembered picking my sister up from lessons every Saturday.”

Of course, the racket handle was too large, so she gripped it with both hands. She volleyed a little with dad and her life changed.

“I really loved it,” she said.

Armando Diaz, her father, is a recreational player, but his passion for the sport caught hold with his daughter. She began lessons and six months later she won her first tournament. There was no turning back.

“I was never forced to play,” Diaz said.

“I loved it. I love to practice. I would practice three hours a day, just working on my baseline game.”

In the end Diaz’s opponents can only blame themselves. After all, they chose to play tennis.