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Elgin's Sirinit 'sick' over not playing - yet

Elgin sophomore girls tennis standout Jacey Sirinit is going a bit stir-crazy these days.

Sirinit, who won a sectional title and qualified for the state tournament as a freshman last year, has been sidelined in the early going of the 2010 season while she recovers from a bout of pneumonia.

And for a girl that has played the game of tennis at a high level for such a long period of time, not having a racket in her hand is a pill that is hard to swallow.

"It's definitely not fun," Sirinit laughs. "I need to play. I want to play. I miss playing tennis. Taking a break will hurt my game."

Sirinit says when she first became ill she went to the doctor and received an antibiotic.

"I got better then it started up again," she explains. "Since then, it hasn't been doing much better."

The illness couldn't have come at a worse time for Sirinit, who had nice momentum going on the court during the first part of this summer.

"I was playing five hours a day, three days a week and was playing in tournaments on the weekend and then we had school camp," Sirinit says. "At the end of July I started not playing."

Elgin coach Jan LaBar was sad to hear her star player had her summer interrupted.

"She had been playing a lot of tournaments over the summer and really doing a lot training and then she got shut down," LaBar says. "We don't want her playing until she is completely well. That's the kind of illness that can recur until it gets completely better."

Sirinit hasn't missed any school time this year and says she's close to being able to get back onto the court.

"At least I can get started practicing again," she said earlier this week. "I'm feeling better. I'm less tired. I've still got a cough, which is embarrassing in school, but other than that I'm OK."

A member of the Elgin High School Gifted and Talented Academy Sirinit, a Carol Stream resident, won't fade from the minds of high school tennis followers anytime soon during her absence. She made quite an impression as a ninth-grader in 2009.

"She has a very interesting makeup as a player," LaBar says. "She's very controlled on the court. She doesn't allow the good or the bad to affect her. And she's very, very competitive. She played a lot of tennis before high school. She's been around tennis and has a lot of experience with it."

LaBar points to Sirinit's success with tiebreakers.

"She wins tiebreakers because she is calm," LaBar says. "She does not let anything bother her on the court. That's what opposing coaches notice the most about her."

There is a method behind Sirinit's madness when it comes to her demeanor on the court.

"I try to keep calm," she says. "I don't want to blow up out there. My dad has coached me to not be mad. It doesn't look good when you are mad. It's better to just have fun on the court. If an opponent doesn't know I'm frustrated or upset, they can't take advantage of my mental ability. It's more likely they'll be angry before I am."

Aggression and pressure are also two words prominently ingrained in Sirinit's tennis vocabulary.

"The best part of my game is probably my forehand with ground strokes and playing short balls," she explains. "I'm an aggressive player. I'll put away a ball, especially on the forehand side. It's very satisfying. I've also been working hard at following up at the net. If my short ball is not a winner, I'll play the net game. I've really been working on that a lot.

"Being aggressive, I'd say is very important. When I was younger, I was more of a defensive player. But the ball would take forever to finish. Matches ended up being long and tiring. It's not the way I like to play. It's not as much fun. I switched to being more of an aggressive player."

Playing the tiebreakers, well, that falls into the enjoyment of pressure category.

"I do like playing tiebreakers," she proclaims. "I guess I like the pressure. It makes everything more exciting. I'm able to execute. It's how strong mentally you are because the pressure is on every point in that situation."

Sirinit started playing the sport at the age of eight after dabbling in other athletic activities like soccer, ballet and volleyball.

"I just liked tennis more," says Sirinit, who mainly plays out of the Wheaton Sports Center. "I stuck with it. Tennis is the best. I like the competition and the intensity of it. It's an interesting sport that I enjoy playing."

But there is another side to Sirinit that LaBar says has been absent during the early part of the season.

"She's a wonderful person," LaBar notes. "She's very kind. She doesn't have any type of haughtiness. She's really a sweet and wonderful kid. We miss that a lot."

Sirinit, an honor-roll student at Elgin, has been kept plenty busy with her coursework (she's taking AP biology and AP U.S. history and American Literature) while recovering from her sickness. But she's still had time to think about the season ahead.

"I want to do better at the state tournament," she says. "I want to get past the first round (she lost her only state match last year). I think I can do it. I'd also like to beat the people I lost to last year. The big thing is as long as I know that I have improved my game, that's enough for me. But I want to get back out on the court."

So she can do what she does best.

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