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The holes were plenty in the Greenhills lineup heading into the 2013 season, with seven players having moved on from a team that finished third at the state finals last year.

That meant some players would have to be making moves up the lineup. Big moves.

None of those moves were bigger than Rae Schueller going to the No. 1 singles spot after three years in doubles. Nevermind that she had won a doubles state title three years ago, been a No. 1 doubles state runner-up last year and never played singles.

It was a tough transition on the court. But her contributions were felt nonetheless.

“A lot of stuff has led to that but Rae has been a real trooper,” Greenhills coach Mark Randolph said of moving her to No. 1 singles. “She has been a great asset to the program.”

Schueller was one of two Greenhills players who finished their careers at Tuesday’s regional meet, along with senior Emily Chung.

Schueller and Chung and sophomore Pallavi Prabhu all made the same transition from last year's doubles lineup to this year's singles lineup..

For Schueller, one of the biggest changes was on the mental side.

“Everybody says it’s a mental game, and you have to be able to come back,” Schueller said. “Say you’re down 4-0, you have to be able to say ‘Well I can still get in this,’ and you have to keep your mindset right, otherwise it’s downhill from there.”

As a freshman, Schueller won the state title at No. 4 doubles. After the Gryphons missed the state tournament in 2011, she was scheduled to play No. 2 doubles as a junior last year.

But that was before the team had to do without Lexi Pew, who missed the tennis season after suffering serious injuries in a fall from a Michigan State dorm room window.

Schueller was called on late to move up to No. 1 doubles alongside senior Sarah McIntosh. It was an unlikely pairing.

“Her and I together are fun and goofy, and that’s why we could never picture each other being serious about tennis,” Schueller said.

And the expectations were decidedly low.

“We weren’t expecting to win or anything,” Schueller said. “But we just went out there and we went ahead and we just kept at it.”

But the two kept winning, and capped off the year with a state semifinal win over a team from Pontiac Notre Dame Prep that Randolph called “brilliant.”

Little did Schueller know then that the match marked the end of a successful doubles career. She might rather be playing her senior year vying for another doubles state title, instead of getting her first taste of singles in a gauntlet of multiple Division 1 opponents and four state-ranked Division 4 teams on the Gryphons’ schedule.

But helping out a younger team gearing for the future isn’t bad either.

“She’s had a great career here, and she’ll be long-remembered for her contributions,” Randolph said. “And it’s been nice to have her passing that on to the kids this year.

“She wanted to lead the team, and she’s doing a great job.”

Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kyleaustin@annarbor.com or 734-623-2535. Follow him on Twitter @KAustin_AA.