Nobody is ready to declare Granite City as a girls tennis powerhouse in the Southwestern Conference, but things are looking up for the Warriors.
"Last year was what I would call a rebuilding year because we lost a lot of seniors from the previous season," Granite City coach Ashley Swip said. "We won only three matches, but this year we have a pretty solid lineup and most of our girls are back.
"We beat Waterloo 5-0 in the Edwardsville Tournament (Sept. 2-3) and last year they creamed us, so I think that's a good indication of how we're going to do this year."
Senior Ali Fingerhut plays No. 1 singles for the Warriors with senior Alison Stabenow at No. 2. Two more seniors, Ashley Wallace and Abbi Maynard, play third and fourth singles, respectively. Rounding out the lineup are junior Claire Wendel at No. 5 and sophomore Kim Galbraith at No. 6.
The doubles combinations are Fingerhut and Stabenow at No. 1, Maynard and Wendel at No. 2, Galbraith and junior Katelyn Peck at No. 3 and juniors Deana Gergen and Gaby Magana at No. 4.
Granite City may have faced the toughest part of its schedule last week with back-to-back dual matches against Belleville West on Sept. 6 and Edwardsville on Sept. 7.
"We played O'Fallon and Triad the week before that and they're really tough," Swip said. "We're going into a stretch against teams that are pretty much our caliber and we feel we can beat them."
The Warriors lost 7-2 to Collinsville on Thursday and 5-4 to Bethalto Civic Memorial on Monday. Granite City was scheduled to play Tuesday at Roxana and will play Thursday at Alton Marquette. Swip's squad is in the Alton Tournament on Saturday.
"We'd like to win at least five matches this year and I think we have the talent to do it," Swip said.
