The world is round; the sky is blue; and the Salisbury girls tennis team is in the state 2A semifinals.

Something else never changes. Salisbury (19-1) always has to squeak by Central Carolina Conference rival Lexington in the quarterfinals to reach the Final Four.

Tuesday afternoon at City Park, it was 6-3 Hornets. The match wasn’t nearly as death-defying as the knockdown-dragout Salisbury and Lexington staged last Nov. 1 — the Hornets were four points away from dropping that one — but it got interesting nonetheless.

Oh, it looked routine enough for a couple of hours. Salisbury’s Tonya Fox, Lane Wallace, Kristy Woodson and Lindsay Hampton rattled off four reasonably easy singles wins, while Lexington was getting only its standard victory at No. 1 by Catherine Koontz, the recently crowned 2A singles champ, who doesn’t lose to anyone. Not even Michelle Leonard.

But a funny thing happened with the Hornets up 4-1 and with Brandy Albracht leading her No. 4 singles match 6-1, 4-1. Another handful of points by Albracht and everyone could have headed home to hand out Halloween candy. But she never got them. Lexington’s Lydia Nims just refused to give up. Nims rallied to win the second set 7-5. Then she won a third-set tiebreaker 7-1 to complete her stirring comeback and cut Salisbury’s edge to 4-2.

Doubles were going to have to be played after all.

“If Coach (Bill)Lee had been here, he would have said it was too easy,” said Hornets’ first-year coach Chris Myers, who took the reins of the program from Lee prior to this season. “But I should have known this was Lexington. I should have known they were coming back. They always do.”

Or Salisbury comes back on them.

“It’s like we always win against Lexington,” said Salisbury’s Leonard, “but they always give us a run for our money.”

“I guess,” shivered Myers, “it was a bad omen that no one brought their sweats with them today.”

As temperatures plummeted and Lexington hopes rose, Hornet parents managed to round up warmer clothing for most everyone except Myers, who continued to pace in his black, short-sleeved shirt. Fortunately, Myers was saved from turning into an icicle by an inspired effort by Leonard and Hampton at No. 1 doubles. They topped Lexington’s talented team of Lin Bunce and NatalieKing 10-3 to sew up the match by 8 p.m.

“Lindsay and I have started reading each other really well,” said senior Leonard, who is ship-shape again after struggling with kidney stones two weeks ago. “I just wish we had another year to play together.”

“So do I,” said Hampton, an energetic freshman who punctuated her comments with Muhammad Ali-like shuffles and occasional jabs at Myers. “Playing with Michelle is great. She made us win.”

Bunce and King, however, are glad that Leonard and Hampton part company after this season. The Salisbury duo has beaten the Lexington pair — a team good enough to reach the individual state tournament — five times this fall. Twice in the regular season, again in the conference tournament, once more in the sectional tournament and finally, yesterday.

“It’s always a tough match,” said Bunce, who will start Yellow Jacket basketball practice today on schedule. “We just haven’t been able to pull through against them.”

“It’s hard to beat a good team three times, much less five,” said Myers. “But Michelle and Lindsay played their best match today. They showed people why they reached the semifinals of the state tournament.”

Koontz led her team to a win at No. 2, but Hornet sophs Woodson and Wallace combined for a comeback win at No. 3. Down 6-2 , the “W-girls” stormed back to win 10-6 for the 6-3 tally that will enter the record books.

Albracht usually plays No. 3 with Wallace, but was under the weather a bit yesterday. Myers says he’ll need Albracht and everyone else at “100-percent-plus” to have any chance in Thursday’s match at unbeaten Statesville. The Greyhounds handled the Hornets 8-1 for their lone loss this season and humbled them 5-1 in the 1999 state semis.

“If we could borrow Koontz and Bunce and King from Lexington and maybe get Liz Taylor and Doris Reinholz back, we might make it interesting against Statesville,” chuckled Myers.

Myers was only kidding, but Statesville, which boasts the state champion doubles team and the singles runner-up, really is that good. But at least the Hornets have the satisfaction of knowing they made it just as far as they could have — and should have — this season.

“It’s inevitable. One of these times, we won’t win when we go up against Lexington,” said Myers. “At some point, they’ll beat us. But we didn’t want it to be today. In the end, the girls did what they had to do to move on.”

So what else is new? The ocean is deep; the grass is green; and the Salisbury girls are in the state semifinals.