A break in the cloudy sky allows the sun to light up a row of tennis courts. Amidst rain-soaked surroundings these sun-baked courts are the last dry ground.

The only audible sound is a tennis ball being smashed back and forth to the cadence of a coach’s orders.

In the shadows, a women’s tennis standout, Ashley Prenatt, gears up for the 106th Ojai Tennis Tournament followed by the upcoming SoCal Regionals, the oldest tournament of its kind in California.

Prenatt is entering the tournament in doubles competition with partner Brittany Neusome.

“We are a good team together,” Neusome says of Prenatt. “We have the same mind frame…the same mental game.”

When the two played together during regular season they were defeated only once in seven matches.

Prenatt also had a season in singles play.

“She won her first 10 in a row, but gave up her last two,” said head coach Louella Parsons.

Prenatt and the team finished third in conference because a player arrived six minutes late to a match.

“I’m only frustrated because we started from scratch,” Prenatt said. “We made it so far and then lost on a silly technicality.”

Prenatt, born in Los Angeles, moved to Santa Barbara when she was in third grade. She began playing tennis at the age of 12. She would go with friends to Montecito tennis clinics.

In her senior year at Cate, a boarding school in Carpintaria, She was the number one player on her tennis team and won first place in the league.

At the age of 14, Prenatt accepted a science research internship in Russia, where she studied strains of bacteria related to anthrax.

While in Moscow, Prenatt began taking pictures of the poverty-stricken surroundings.

“I was inspired by the poverty,” Prenatt says “I wanted to make a portfolio of the people.”

Prenatt later turned the photos into oil paintings, which she then displayed at a Cate art show.

Prenatt’s love for art grew as she matured. She loves the work of Chagal and Michelangelo.

“I especially like artists who haven’t been trained,” Prenatt explains. “That’s true art. When you don’t expect anything; when you don’t have a vision and you just let it come out.”

The people around Prenatt support her art endeavors.

“I love her art,” said teammate Neusome. “She is a very talented artist her style of art is very unique.”

Prenatt is also an avid fan of music. She used to listen to hip-hop but now she mainly listens to indie-rock.

“(Hip-hop) is just a bunch of anthems, no substance,” she says. “I love hip-hop, but the wrong people are in the spotlight right now.”

Prenatt was quick to point out that she listens to Tupac everyday.

So what’s next for Ashley Prenatt?

After the semester she plans to spend a summer at Bolleteries, a prestigious tennis camp, with such alumni as Maria Sharipova, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and the Williams sisters.

She hopes to attend University of California Berkeley and wants to join the tennis team as a walk-on.

But first, she must hit the tennis courts. After all, practice makes perfect.