The start of the 2011 season has included injuries, tournament cancellations and mixed results for area teams.
Belleville West has a winning record and an impressive second-place finish in the 32-team Edwardsville Tournament without its top two players.
Standout senior Max McLean has yet to play a singles match this season as he continues to rehab from a shoulder injury. West coach Andy Brunner hopes McLean, who has played some doubles, will be available for singles in this weekend's Belleville East Tournament.
Senior James Stathis missed four weeks with a broken wrist, but has had a quick recovery and is back in action. Stathis, and doubles partner Scott Segobiano have won all three of their matches this season, including an impressive victory against Rock Bridge.
"They are playing well and should get a good seed at the state tournament," Brunner said of his senior doubles team.
West has a winning record at 5-4, which includes victories against Belleville East and Triad. But the injuries at the top of the lineup have hurt in losses against Edwardsville, Westminster Christian, Lafayette and Rock Bridge.
Due to injuries, the lineup has been reconfigured with Segobiano and fellow senior Blake Hollenbeck playing in the Nos. 1 and 2 spots.
"They have competed well, although they have lost some tough matches," Brunner said.
Belleville West was rained out of a tournament in Moline last weekend. It plays in the Arlington 32, which features most of the top teams in the state, the weekend after the Belleville East Tournament.
Belleville East is 7-7 with an extremely young lineup. Coach Dan Skaer has only one senior and three juniors in his top 12 players.
"I am pretty pleased with the progress of such a young team," said Skaer, whose team has good wins over Triad and University High of Bloomington. "I have seen improvement over the last week of the season."
The strength of Skaer's team is its depth as there is not a large difference between his top 10 players.
Skaer's son, Ty, a junior, is playing at No. 1 singles. Sophomore Lucas Birk is at No. 2, junior Josh Radil at No. 3 and senior Scott Spitze at No. 4.
Belleville East has proven to be a competitive tournament team this season. It finished third out of 16 teams at Bloomington and eighth out of 32 teams at Edwardsville.
East hosts its invitational this weekend with play beginning at 3 p.m. on Friday and at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. Teams in the tournament include: Alton, Belleville East (A and B), Centralia, Edwardsville (B), Highland, Peoria Richwoods, Quincy Notre Dame, Westminster Christian, Belleville West, Carbondale, Clayton, Effingham, O'Fallon, Quincy and Granite City.
O'Fallon coach Ray Cordon is looking for good weather this weekend as are the other coaches in the tournament.
"Having been rained out of tournaments the last two weekends has not helped us," Cordon said. "Tournament play is one of the best ways for kids to improve their game and the weather has not been on our side. We are not the only team to suffer from the weather, but the lack of opportunity for sustained play you get in tournaments has definitely hurt our progress."
O'Fallon entered the week with a 6-5-1 dual match record.
"The season so far has been spotty," Cordon said. "While many of our games have been close, we have had trouble winning the big points. Some of our scores have not reflected the closeness of the matches. However, a win is a win and a loss is a loss. We have simply absorbed more losses than we would have liked "
Althoff entered the week with a 3-5 dual record, which includes a good 8-1 win over Waterloo.
"We have basically beaten the teams we should have beaten and lost to much bigger programs with more talented players," Althoff coach Rusty Parker said.
Parker called Althoff's 3-2 showing at the Edwardsville Tournament the highlight of the season. The Crusaders drew the host and eventual champion in the opening round, but came back to win three times and also won the sportsmanship award in the 32-team tournament.
Senior Clay Lewis is competing well at the No. 1 singles spot in his first year at the top position. Senior James Leopold and junior Sam Renner are playing at No. 2 and 3 singles, respectively. Austin Mueller is one of three freshmen who are playing in the top six.
"We still have some tough matches remaining against teams like Belleville West and Centralia," Parker said. "But we are at the point of our schedule where we are playing a lot of teams we can be competitive against. I think we have a chance to finish at .500 or above and we should have a chance to be very competitive in our conference."
Mascoutah has started the season with a 2-6 record. Its wins have come against Metro-East Lutheran (8-1) and Granite City (5-4).
The Indians have yet to win in five Mississippi Valley Conference matches.
"We are a very young and inexperienced team because of graduation (Cullen Jervis and Jordan Pollman) and natural attrition," Mascoutah coach Sam Graf said. "Four starters did not come back."
Mascoutah has just one senior (Mike Graf) on the roster. Junior Payton Knobeloch is playing No. 1 singles for the Indians.
