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  • Bolsa Grande tennis players Tracy Van, left, and Tammy Van...

    Bolsa Grande tennis players Tracy Van, left, and Tammy Van are sisters who as a doubles team last year advanced to the round of 16 in the CIF Individual Tennis Championships.

  • Bolsa Grande tennis players Tammy Van, left, and Tracy Van...

    Bolsa Grande tennis players Tammy Van, left, and Tracy Van are sisters who as a doubles team last year advanced to the round of 16 in the CIF Individual Tennis Championships.

  • Sophomore Tammy Van, like her sister, carries a weighted 4.0...

    Sophomore Tammy Van, like her sister, carries a weighted 4.0 GPA in addition to devoting much of her time to starring on the tennis team.

  • Bolsa Grande's Tracy Van, shown during a match in October,...

    Bolsa Grande's Tracy Van, shown during a match in October, calls her sister Tammy “really assertive and confident. She has that self-belief I lack.”

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Date shot: 12/31/2012 . Photo by KATE LUCAS /  ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

There are times when Bolsa Grande girls tennis coach Destiny Le has trouble telling Tracy Van apart from Tammy Van.

The Van sisters are two years apart in age, closer even in height and too similar in frame for some people to notice much of a difference. At a distance, it’s fairly easy to lose Tracy Van’s darker complexion and matured facial features. Put them in the same uniform and Tracy and Tammy Van could very well be identical twins.

In her second year coaching the sisters and her seventh year coaching at Bolsa Grande, Le has subtle ways of distinguishing the starlets. Tammy Van is a little more lithe, has a little more spring in her step and is louder. Tracy Van is a little bigger, is more methodical and is a bit reserved.

Put the Van sisters on adjacent tennis courts, however, and their variations in style and temperament are clear.

“She’s really assertive and confident,” Tracy said of Tammy, who is two years her junior. “She has that self-belief I lack. Everything she does, she puts her personality into it. For me, I’m a late bloomer. Even though I really enjoyed tennis, it took me a while to get things going.

“Tammy, for her, tennis was natural.”

Tracy and Tammy Van began playing tennis as 7-year-olds; they were seasoned piano players looking for a second extracurricular activity to call their own.

Tracy Van, who started playing tennis first, said the sport allowed her to assert herself in ways only a shy, passive child could appreciate. Tennis gave her the competitive edge she said she lacked, and she thrived in the sport’s active, outdoors environment. Piano lessons soon gave way to tennis lessons, and with an older, tennis-playing cousin at her disposal, Tracy Van grew more and more comfortable with a racket in her hand.

And by age 9, she was no longer the only Van sister playing.

“I actually didn’t like tennis at first,” Tammy Van said. “There was a lot of running to it, and at that time, I didn’t like running. There was so much running.”

Tammy Van benefited greatly from regularly hitting balls with her sister, and the sibling rivalry both girls say existed facilitated their progress as individuals. By entering local and national tournaments as a doubles team, the Van sisters grew exceedingly comfortable playing competitive tennis together.

Their personalities and styles clashed at times, but Tammy Van said their passion for competing never damaged their relationship.

“We had some ups and downs,” Tammy Van said. “Missing shots was sometimes frustrating. It was a sibling thing. We weren’t afraid to tell each other anything. But sometimes we said stuff we didn’t mean to say, stuff we said not meaning to hurt each other’s feelings.

“Sometimes in a match, you forget it’s your sister.”

Tracy Van captured the Garden Grove League singles championship her freshman and sophomore years at Bolsa Grande, and Le said having a young player of Tracy Van’s caliber inspired others to strive for similar success. When Tammy Van enrolled at the school last fall, Le had two of the best young singles players in Orange County.

In the postseason, Tracy and Tammy Van played as a tandem, winning the league doubles championship and advancing to the round of 16 in the CIF championships. They plan to join forces again this season.

“Tracy had her experience playing singles in high school,” Le said. “I thought it was cute what they did. Sisters, playing together. It was one of their only opportunities to play together in high school, and they played tough matches against good tennis players.

“Of 800 players (to qualify for CIF), them finishing in the top 16 was a big achievement. We’re all proud.”

Tracy Van is the type of tennis player who’ll practice until the sun goes down. The first girl out and last to leave. She has five advanced placement classes and carries a 4.0 weighted grade-point average. Tennis, she said, is a stress reliever of sorts.

Tammy Van said she’s the exact opposite. Her “I’ll be out in five minutes” sometimes means she’ll be out in 30. Her academic load is similarly challenging to her older sister, and she, too, maintains a weighted 4.0 GPA. Tennis, she said, is her love, her life.

Tammy Van tagged along this summer as Tracy visited college campuses. USC and UCLA are Tracy’s dream schools. UC San Diego, however, offers her the best chance of playing college tennis. Tracy Van wants to pursue a career in the medical or psychology field and is preparing applications when not on the tennis court.

She hopes to have chosen a college by spring.

Only a sophomore, Tammy Van hopes that day doesn’t come a second too soon.

“Writing personal statements, stressing out over the SATs, everything is coming so fast for her,” she said. “I just want to enjoy this moment with my sister.”

Contact the writer: 714-704-3790 or bwhitehead@ocregister.com