LEXINGTON — Put playing Lexington High in boys tennis right next to filling out income tax forms, carrying out the garbage and paying the power bill on your short list of things that are no fun to do.
On Tuesday afternoon, another good — but not quite great — Hornet tennis season crashed to a halt at Lexington’s Bingham Center, a place where Salisbury tennis dreams have gone to die more times than Vision Cable has channels.
This time, it was Lexington 5, Salisbury 2. Give Mother Nature 2, too. A couple of doubles matches were rained out.
Salisbury (13-5) was so near — yet so far away in this dual team 2A state quarterfinal clash. Hustling Hornets made many matches close. They fought the good fight, went after every point hard. Still, they were clearly outmanned by the talented Yellow Jackets (20-0).
“Lexington’s just the better team,” said Salisbury coach Chris Myers. “Just too good at the top. Just too good, period.”
“They’re a great team,” agreed Hornet Kenny Cibik. “Lots of power hitters.”
The Hornets weren’t at full power. They were minus No. 5 player Alex Hattaway, who has mono. That was important, because Hattaway had won twice previously against Lexington. His absence gave Lexington a huge head-start that it didn’t really need. It was like spotting LaTasha Pharr 20 yards in the 100 hurdles.
Britt Butler, usually No. 6, slid up a flight to fill Hattaway’s slot, while Reid Dickert stepped in at 6.
Somehow, Dickert delivered in the face of pressure, outlasting Paul Greathouse in two hotly contested 7-5 sets.
Butler wasn’t so lucky. He got smacked twice by 6-1 scores by Adam Byerly.
“It was a good bit of difference, playing 6 and playing 5,” said Butler. “He was better than the other guy. But, no excuses, mostly it was me. My serve was off. Some days you’re on and some days you’re off and today I was off.”
It was a day when Myers desperately needed everyone to be on. Salisbury had to win the bottom two singles and No. 3 doubles to have even a prayer.
“To beat Lexington, we had to play our absolute best and had to hope maybe Lexington wasn’t focused,” said Myers.
Lexington had plenty of reasons to be distracted. Three Yellow Jacket seniors were set to graduate a few hours after the match. Still, their veterans acted as if tennis was the only thing on their minds.
Salisbury’s No. 1, Helmut Shomaker, may well be the best prep player in Rowan County, but couldn’t win a game against Matt Simeon. Salisbury’s No. 2, Aaron Post, won just two games against Chris Cagle. Post summed up the day pretty accurately when he reported to Myers, “I didn’t play bad. I just got beat.”
Meanwhile, Hornet No. 3 Adam Martin was in his match against hard-hitting Chad Frye, but finally succumbed 6-4, 6-3.
Doubles would not have been necessary at all, had Salisbury No. 4 Cibik not put together a clever effort that resulted in a stunning, wind-blown upset of Lexington’s Spencer Cagle in a match that required a third-set tiebreaker.
Cibik was a wall, getting everything back, and Cagle, going after winners, kept knocking balls long and wide.
“I let him make the mistakes,” said Cibik.
“Kenny played him a lot smarter this time,” said Myers. “He was thinking a little bit more. It’s a great win. I can’t remember one of our guys ever beating one of the Cagles. And there was older brother here before the two they’ve got now (twins Spencer and Chris).”
Cibik’s performance was such that he received congratulatory handshakes even from Lexington fans.
Still, he could only prolong the inevitable. With Salisbury already down 4-2 heading to doubles, it was a done deal. Myers knew it, Lexington coach Deborah Arnold knew it, the crowd knew it.
Because Lexington simply has the two best 2A doubles teams in the state.
The Cagles play No. 1 and won the CCC Tournament. Frye and Simeon team up at No. 2 and all they’ve done lately is win the regionals and the individual state championship. Frye and Simeon actually beat the Cagles in the state finals. Neither unit has lost to anyone all year — outside of the other Lexington team.
“When you’ve got four kids at the top like she does, you have to feel pretty good when you get to doubles,” said Myers.
It was over very quickly. Frye and Simeon — imagine the state champs playing on the No. 2 courts! — blanked Post and Cibik 10-0 for the clincher.
Shomaker and Martin played inspired tennis, but were still down 8-4 against the Cagle clan when rain prevented their for-pride-only match from being completed. No. 3 doubles, still in the early stages, suffered the same wet fate.
All that was left for the Hornets to do after that was hop on the bus and dream about getting over the Lexington hump next year.
It might happen. Myers will have quite a crew in 2002.
“This was a good season and we’ve still got a lot to build on for next year,” he said. “We’ll have five experienced kids back (the Hornets lose Shomaker and Butler) and Lexington loses 2 through 4.”
The best news is that all the returning Hornets have promised Myers an off season of hard work on their games.
“I’ll improve four levels this summer,” promised Post. “Expectations are high.”
Today's News
