CAMARILLO'S GAONA IS A GAMER; FRESHMAN HELPS LEAD SCORPIONS TO FIRST PLACE IN MARMONTE LEAGUE.Byline: Jim Inghram Daily News Staff Writer Camarillo Camarillo (kă'mərē`yō), city (1990 pop. 52,303), Ventura co., S Calif.; inc. 1964. It is the center of a fertile farm area where citrus fruits and flowers are grown. freshman Lauren Lauren as a surname may refer to:
Her impact has not been a surprise to teammates or first-year adj. 1. Being in the first year of an experience especially in a U. S. high school or college; - of a person. Adj. 1. first-year - used of a person in the first year of an experience (especially in United States high school or college); "a coach Chad Chad (chăd, chäd), Fr. Tchad, officially Republic of Chad, republic (2005 est. pop. 9,826,000), 495,752 sq mi (1,284,000 sq km), N central Africa. Pridgen. ``I knew she was going to be pretty good,'' Pridgen said. ``I coach the boys' team and her brothers played for me and I know the family, so I expected her to come in and do well. Right now she's one of the top three or four players in the league. I think that's quite an accomplishment for a freshman.'' ``Actually I've known her since she was 8-years-old,'' said teammate Bettina Rettenmaier, 17, a senior on the Scorpions team. ``I always knew she was really good. ``Last summer we went to this event called World Team Tennis in San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. . They invite teams from all over the country to play. I played with Lauren and she was awesome.'' Gaona, 15, started playing the sport at age 6 at the Oak Ridge Oak Ridge, city (1990 pop. 27,310), Anderson and Roane counties, E Tenn., on Black Oak Ridge and the Clinch River; founded by the U.S. government 1942, inc. as an independent city 1959. Athletic Club in Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. . In addition to playing for the Scorpions, she has a personal coach, Steve McAvory, at the Calabasas Tennis Center. Although she is comfortable in her role as No. 1 singles player on a team that is tied for first in league with a 14-2 overall record and 11-1 league record, it wasn't always so. Gaona and Michelle Alvarez, who is part of the No. 1 doubles team, are the only two freshman on the team. ``I was a little nervous at the start of the season,'' Gaona said. ``Mostly because I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know how things would go or the format, but luckily I knew a lot of players that were already on the team and that helped.'' In singles, Gaona is 36-6. She teamed with Rettenmaier twice on a doubles team and they went 6-0. ``I like how we're doing as a team,'' Gaona said. ``We're tied for first and doing well. Personally I know I can play better. Most of the time I've been doing pretty good, but against Simi Valley (the team that beat the Scorpions in league play) I didn't do very good.'' Gaona prefers to play a baseline The horizontal line to which the bottoms of lowercase characters (without descenders) are aligned. See typeface. baseline - released version dominated game, something she likely developed from playing against her older brothers Jason, a freshman on the UC Davis tennis team and Jared a senior at Camarillo. ``I play back,'' she said, ``because I like to hit the ball hard.'' Added Rettenmaier: ``Lauren likes to hit. She's a petite girl, but she can really hit.'' Asked about her goals, Gaona simply said she hoped her team did well in the upcoming Southern Section playoffs. ``I think she is going to keep getting better and better,'' Rettenmaier said. ``She's so mentally tough. It takes a lot to break her down, another player would really have to be doing something that was annoying her and do it over and over and over. ``It still probably wouldn't break her concentration. CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Freshman Lauren Gaona has a 16-6 record in singles for Camarillo. Gene Blevins / Special to the Daily News |
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