Success has become contagious on the Valencia girls tennis team.

The Tigers are coming off back-to-back CIF Division IV titles, and they only lost one player from last year’s championship team.

Now Valencia has moved up a division, but its talent and hunger to go for a different kind of three-peat remains the same.

“We have a real experienced team that has experienced quite a bit of success, 12 of our 17 girls on the roster are seniors,” Valencia coach Michael McCall said.

“It’s going to be interesting because we moved up a division, but I think we have a chance to compete and make a run in CIF.”

Here’s a look at the Tigers ready to make a run at that title.

Junior Sarah Blair is Valencia’s No. 1 singles player and a star on the rise.

Her athleticism makes playing tennis look easy.

“She is the kind of girl you can see playing in any sport and doing well,” McCall said.

“She moves well, hits the ball hard and is extremely competitive. She is really good at putting the ball away and knows how to end a point.”

The Tigers strength is depth and experienced players.

Players don’t come more experienced than seniors Natalie McKay and Candace Wu, who have been on playing for Valencia the past four seasons.

Only difference is McKay is playing single for the first time in two years.

“She has a huge forehand that just punishes the ball,” McCall said.

McKay is the heavy hitting has caught the attention of UC Riverside.

Wu might be the most consistent player on the team.

“She can really move her opponents around the court,” McCall said. “That movement allows her to create good angles to finish them off.”

Both players flip-flop between No. 2 and 3 singles, depending on the matchup.

“They are both very similar in terms of their level of play,” McCall said.

Valencia’s depth continues with its top doubles team Larissa Yates and Paulina Tran.

The senior duo personalities and style on the court compliment each other.

“It’s interesting because Larissa is really outgoing and talkative, the kind of person that wears her emotions on her sleeve,” McCall said.

“Paulina is the absolute opposite, very quiet and hardly says a word.”

On the court Yates knows how to put the ball away at the net and Tran seems to always keep the ball in play.

“As a coach you look to put a setter (Tran) and a hitter (Yates) together,” McCall said. “So it works out well having them together in that regard.”

Choices are going to have to be made when it comes to choosing the final two doubles teams for the Tigers.

It’s a good thing Valencia has plenty of talent to choose from.

The first candidates are Felicia Hsu, a sophomore, and Crystal Lee, a senior.

Hsu’s forte is the ground stroke and Lee has a solid all-around game.

“Both girls are just learning how to play doubles,” McCall said.

“They both really love to play the game and are passionate about the game. That absolutely makes them better players.”

Sophomores Amelia Ehyates and Prayerna Uppal are the young guns on the team trying to earn a spot.

“Both have great potential as they become more and more comfortable with playing doubles,” McCall said.

“They have excellent ground strokes and are improving at the net all the time.”

A pair of upperclassmen, Avanti Kelkar and Amanda Lee, are in the mix as well.

“Avanti is more of a steady player and Amanda is the aggressive player,” McCall said. “Their good friends off the court and have good chemistry on the court.”

Top notch singles players and quality doubles teams have been the key to Valencia’s success and this season will be no different.

“We were able to win because we had three really strong singles players,” McCall said.

“We had four tournament players and three of whom played singles and the other was a doubles player.

With those four girls we were able to win eight or nine sets in singles. Then all we had to do was win a few sets of doubles and that would put us over the top.”

The Tigers have three of those players back in their line-up and the expectations remain the same.

“It has established an expectation of success amongst the kids in the program,” McCall said.

“Success breeds success as they say. There is an expectation that we are going to perform well.”

Valencia has a process, work hard in practice and success will follow.

“Emphasize that we need to get it done in practice everyday and in order to keep getting better,” McCall said.

“If we get it done in practice then the results are going to take care of themselves in the matches.”

An Empire League title and at least a deep run into the CIF Division III playoffs should be in the cards for this experienced Tigers team.