The Norwin girls' tennis team might not win the WPIAL title this season, but that's not the point.

Not when the Knights have all underclassmen at their top five lineup spots, including sophomores at all three singles positions.

The hope is the seeds being sown now will lead to a fruitful future.

"With the sophomores playing singles, I'm kind of pleased with that -- not so much for this year, but, obviously, we will have them together for three years," Norwin coach Shawn Vimislicky said. "I don't really have any high expectations for them this year, but I feel good about the future."

Morgan Dolinar, Jen McDonald and Marina Clemente are 10th-graders who will play singles this season for the Knights, whose season began Monday. Norwin was to play Connellsville yesterday and Penn-Trafford today. All three matches are a part of Section 1-AAA play.

Of the three sophomores, Dolinar is the most accomplished and will play first singles. She has trained at the Club 4 Life in Monroeville and has USTA tournament experience.

"She just puts more time into it and focuses on it," Vimislicky said. "Plus, she goes out and plays tournaments against different competition and different styles of play. That just benefits you as opposed to playing against the same people all the time.

"She's a baseliner with topspin off both sides. She's still pretty small, but she's still got some growing to do and then she'll be considered more of power player. Right now we're just trying to get her consistent."

Despite her relative tennis experience, Dolinar was in awe at times last season playing in a section with the likes of the Kissell sisters of Latrobe, who are each USTA ranked players and the younger sisters of Michaela Kissell, a three-time PIAA singles champion now at the University of Miami.

"She started at No. 1 for me last year, and you could tell she was nervous," Vimislicky said. "She should be much better this season with the nervousness. She looked good in the last exhibition match. If she can stay healthy this year, we're expecting a real good season."

McDonald and Clemente figure to be competitive at second and third singles, respectively. And if the Knights are going to improve on their two-win season of a year ago and contend for a playoff spot for the first time this decade, the doubles teams will have to contribute.

Junior Katherine Kennedy and sophomore Sam Deflitch are playing first doubles. Second doubles could be a more fluid situation throughout the season, but for now, seniors Mara Hilko and Andie Kyros are filling that spot.

"They're all pretty even, and they all play singles but do not play a lot of doubles, so it's hard to find the right combination of girls for doubles," Vimislicky said. "We will see how it goes after this week. We have four matches in five days. It comes in pretty quick, and we'll evaluate it and see what happens next week."

The starters could be pushed by the teams of seniors Keri Morgan and Cass Zentner and juniors Ali McLaughlin and Kara Halin.

The senior duo is closer to contributing this season, but Vimislicky is playing the juniors together to better prepare them for the future.