It may not be ready for a victory parade down Main Street, but the Collinsville girls tennis team appears headed in the right direction.
Headed into Wednesday's match at Waterloo, the Kahoks were 5-8 overall and 2-5 in the Southwestern Conference.
"I have three veteran seniors and that will hurt losing them next year, but I have a couple freshmen that have come in and started on varsity," said first-year coach Emma Houshmand. "We have 15 girls, which is up from past seasons, so we're really happy about that.
"We have the top conference for tennis in this part of the state and we're not ready to challenge Edwardsville or Belleville West, but I would love to keep climbing. Unlike those schools, though, we don't get a lot of kids who start playing tennis at a young age."
Most of the girls on the Kahoks' roster played tennis only on a recreational level prior to high school or hadn't played at all.
"A few years ago I had a camp for younger kids along with (the city of Collinsville) recreational office in hopes that we would more of them playing in the high school program," said Houshmand, whose team plays Friday and Saturday at the conference tournament in O'Fallon. "This year they hired a couple of my kids for the camp and the numbers were actually up.
"This summer I worked with some of the high school kids - not as many as I would like - but we're trying different things to get the numbers up and get the quality up along with it."
Senior Haley Grueber plays No. 1 singles and is part of the No. 1 doubles team along with freshman Olivia Scatuvro, who plays No. 3 singles. Kari Seiling is the No. 2 singles player and plays No. 2 doubles with fellow senior Danielle Niepert, who is the No. 5 singles player.
Freshman Maddie Swiecicki is in the fourth singles spot. Sophomores Jessica Ledford and Ali Wimmerstedt split time at sixth singles while playing No. 3 doubles.
"I don't have Maddie in doubles yet," Houshmand said. "Earlier in the year her stamina wasn't very good, but she's getting there.
"Looking at our scores from last year, my goal is to up those numbers. Of course I love the W's, but if we lost to somebody 9-0, I at least want to win a couple of matches.
"We had never won against Althoff and they're struggling after losing a bunch of good players from last year, but we beat them this year and we'll take that. It's a momentum builder for us and it made the girls feel really good."
Collinsville's tournament performance is equally encouraging.
"At the Riverbend Tournament (in Alton), my No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams finished second to Highland and No. 3 doubles took third place," Houshmand said. "We had usually been in the back draw, so to get in the front draw is a good accomplishment.
"We also had a tournament at Edwardsville which has three different tiers and we actually advanced to the second tier after usually being at the bottom. They're little steps, but they're promising."
Grueber, who saw action at No. 1 and No. 2 singles last season, is happy to see the team making progress in her senior year.
"My sisters played tennis in high school and I started messing around with it in third grade, but I didn't take it seriously until eighth grade," Grueber said. "I took a few lessons here and there, but I didn't play many tournaments.
"We hit a rough patch for a while, but we're getting better. I'm competitive with some of the other No. 1 players in the area, so that makes me feel pretty good.
"Maddie and Olivia have stepped in and helped the team, and with Olivia as my doubles partner, we've done pretty well. The best I had ever done at Alton was fifth place, so getting second was a huge step up."
Grueber's teammates share her enthusiasm.
"I can definitely see us improving," Niepert said. "We've won several more matches than we've won since I've been here."
"My serves have gotten a lot better and I've learned how to place the ball a lot better than I used to," Seiling said. "With a new coach, we've learned a lot more things and different drills to work on."
The seniors are also learning to be leaders on and off the court.
"We have so many underclassmen that you feel like you have to do everything right all the time," Niepert said. "There's a little more pressure."
