Published in The Boston Globe and on Boston.com on June 16, 2011.
Your first football. Your first glove. Your first hockey stick.
Alana Prinos remembers the orange hopper full of chartreuse tennis balls.
Her father “had the orange basket, and we were out in the driveway and he would feed me balls and I’d whack them into the lawn,’’ recalled the Foxborough High junior after a recent practice session on a warm, sticky afternoon.
She was 3 years old. Fourteen years later, her father’s role as mentor is slightly magnified: Peter Prinos coaches the girls’ tennis team at Foxborough High, as well as Alana and her three younger sisters.
On Saturday, his eldest daughter will take on Nithila Asokaraj from Acton-Boxborough Regional High in the semifinals of the MIAA state individual tennis tournament. It will be her first appearance in the final four since suffering a three-set loss to Marlborough’s Marina Fileva in the semis as a freshman.
“I have a lot of faith in her,’’ said Peter Prinos, who played on the US Tennis Association’s men’s tour after a four-year career at Florida State University. He also worked as an assistant coach at FSU while finishing his degree.
With Alana and younger sister Emma ruling first and third singles, respectively, the Foxborough girls rolled through the regular season at 18-0 — capturing the program’s first Hockomock League title — before losing to Hopkinton, 3-2, in the Division 2 South sectional final for teams.
“It was really an amazing season; singles never lost a match, we were really solid,’’ Alana Prinos said. “Doubles helped us out here and there. Singles remained key, we were really solid.’’
The team format of high school tennis is different from most tournament events, in which matches are solo affairs. Alana Prinos started playing USTA regional tourneys at age 11 and is ranked 15th in the New England girls’ 18-and-under division.
“I love them both,’’ she said when asked to pick a favorite between team and individual competitions. High school “is completely different . . . because it’s the only time in tennis, pretty much, where you can be on a team. . . . Your match counts and everybody else’s match counts just as much.’’
She says her serve is now a weapon. After long hours practicing with her father, Prinos nailed the technique early. It just remained to find the physical strength to hit her now-big serve, which came with growing taller and getting stronger.
Off the court, she has been ranked first in her class all three years of high school. As her senior year approaches, so does college. She knows she wants to play at the next level, but where remains a question, she said.
This summer will be a pivotal time in weighing her future, with a number of college coaches scouting USTA junior tourneys. Her first stop will be at a New England sectional event June 25 at Yale University in New Haven.
Her siblings, Emma, Diana, and Sophia, also will compete in USTA events. Their mother, MaryAnne, does not play, but she is always rooting on her girls from the stands.
The family built a tennis court behind their home when Alana was little. The Prinos girls now practice there together.
“It’s kind of like our own little Prinos family tennis clinic,’’ Alana said. “We all get to come out and play with each other, and help each other get better.’’
Her father says the game has created a tighter bond among family members, his goal when introducing tennis to his girls. He also believes the lessons that sports teach are carried for life.
Prinos said he would tell his daughters, “Listen, this is going to be really difficult, but if you can get through this, and learn to deal with this, life is going to be a lot easier for you.’’
Alana said the competition and strategy bring her back match after match.
“I like how you have to really fight for every point and figure out a way to win and a way to make your game work,’’ she said. “It’s like solving a puzzle out there. . . You’re on your own, and it’s up to you to figure out a way to make it work.’’
In an individual doubles semifinal, Milton twins Sara and Emily Curtis, freshmen at Ursuline Academy in Dedham, will face Winchester High siblings Karen and Katy McKeough.