SHREVEPORT, La. —  Katie Moak has missed playing tennis in her two years at LSU-Shreveport.

But the 2007 Huntington High graduate is about to get back into the game.

Moak, soon to be a junior at LSUS, became the first player signed to the Pilots’ tennis team, which will start its first ever season in Spring 2010.

“I’m really excited,” Moak said. “It all kind of happened really fast, but I’m ready to get started.”

Moak said two or three other girls have since joined the team, but most of the eight spots will be filled by incoming freshmen who will be recruited by LSUS Athletic Director and tennis coach Doug Robinson.

Moak said she approached Robinson to ask about the team.

“I had heard word around campus that they were starting a team,” she said. “So I went into Coach Robinson’s office in April and told him I was interested in playing.”

Robinson offered Moak a $1,000 a semester scholarship, which will start in the fall.

The team’s 2010 schedule has not yet been finalized, but Moak is just ready to get back on the court.

“I have hit around a little bit since I’ve been here, but I haven’t really played seriously,” she said. “There were a couple people who would play me, but I couldn’t really find anyone who was on the same level as me that I could really play with on a regular basis.”

Moak, whose mother, Penny, coaches the Huntington tennis teams, has been playing tennis since she was young.

She said she and her sister went to tennis camps during the summer, and she started playing for the Hounds in seventh grade.

“I played girls doubles in seventh through 10th grade, and my junior and senior years I played mixed doubles,” she said. “Now I don’t really know what I’ll be playing, but it doesn’t matter. I’m excited just to get out there.”

Moak has maintained a 4.0 grade point average in her first two years as a biology major at LSUS, and she hopes to go to medical school when she graduates.

She said she knows playing tennis will take a toll on her free time and her study time, but her absences for tennis matches and tournaments will be excused.

Now her main concern is getting back in shape.

“It will probably be tough,” she said. “But I’m going to work hard this summer and try to get back into it. It’s very exciting for me.”