The Helias girls tennis team has already made school history by qualifying four players for the individual state tournament.
Now, the Lady Crusaders would like to add another feather to their cap by having someone advance to playing on the second day of the two-day event.
Helias has two singles players, Ashley Dowden and Mary Conley, joining the doubles team of Abby Dowden and Lauren Highfill in the event that begins today at the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield.
"It is very exciting," Helias coach Margaret Shimkus said. "These four have worked hard. From the beginning, I knew we were strong at the top end and was hoping a couple more could have come with us."
Getting this many to individual state is a nice consolation prize for the Lady Crusaders, who just missed out on qualifying for team state. They lost in the quarterfinal round of team play 5-2 to Villa Duchesne, which went on to capture third place in that format Thursday.
"Villa Duchesne was very strong," Shimkus said. "The girls played hard, it wasn't that they messed up or anything, it was just that they got beat. Villa Duchesne was better that day.
"(The four individual qualifiers) were very supportive of the team, they all wanted the team to go. It wasn't just about them, they didn't lay down and quit after they qualified. They still worked hard and cheered on their teammates. As soon as they would win their matches, they would be off the court trying to help someone else."
Now the individual play is the focus for those four, although they're still focused on the others at times.
"It's really nice for us," said Ashley Dowden, a junior who will be making her third straight appearance at state. "I'm really excited for all of them, especially for Lauren, since it's her senior year, ending on a good note."
Dowden's experience is a benefit for the team, as she knows what her teammates will have to deal with.
"It's a big advantage," she said. "I know the players that are there, I know the courts, I know what the conditions are, since it's almost always windy down there. It's a big advantage and I'm looking forward to being there."
Still, there will be nerves regardless.
"It's really exciting," Highfill said. "... But it's also very nerve-wracking going into it. There's going to be a lot of hard teams."
Dowden went 1-2 in singles last year, barely missing out on a chance to advance to Saturday's play. Both she and her coach would like to see a Helias representative still alive on Day 2.
"We just want to try to beat what we've done in the past, I'm all about going further," Shimkus said. "I think they have an opportunity to be able to do that. ... If you don't win two, you don't play Saturday. That is the goal and we'll try to get through.
"Anything can happen, it's the luck of the draw, and it seems like we don't have much luck in that area."
That appeared to be the case again this year, as Dowden got a tough first-round opponent in Pembroke Hill's Yurie Heard. The junior is ranked as the No. 1 recruit in Missouri by tennisrecruiting.net, while Dowden is ranked No. 4.
Before she learned about the draw, Dowden said the approach for this weekend was simple.
"I'm just trying to work on my weaknesses, trying to figure out what they are and strengthen it for state," she said. "It's about trying to pinpoint other peoples' weaknesses as I go so I can work on that for my advantage.
"That's a lot of tennis. Tennis is a mental game. You have to pick on each other's weaknesses and hope that your weakness is stronger than theirs."
Conley is on the other side of the bracket from Dowden and she will open against Taylor Crawford of Marshall.
Abby Dowden and Highfill will take on Clayton's Connor Cassity and Cameron Freeman in their opening match.
"(The draw) is what it is and they have to perform when they get there," Shimkus said. "They're all ready to play hard. I really don't see nerves or anything even though three of them are first-timers. I don't anticipate that being a problem."
Highfill said it's nice having a teammate to lean on in doubles if those nerves surface.
"It's really nice, you can keep each other up if we lose a point or something," she said. "But it's also hard if you have a bad day, you feel really bad for letting them down."
First-round play begins at 9 a.m. today.