Swirling winds forced Salisbury’s tennis team to play with increased patience on Tuesday.
They didn’t stop the Hornets from taking care of business in a hurry.
Salisbury defeated Forest Hills 9-0 in the first round of the 2A dual-team playoffs on a cool and breezy day at City Park. The Hornets clinched their match in 67 minutes as winds gusted at 20 miles per hour and temperatures dropped into the low 60s.
“It was like spring-time tennis out here,” Salisbury coach Chris Myers said. “We haven’t had anything like this all year with the blustery winds. Usually it takes them a couple of games to get adjusted, but it didn’t today.”
Tonya Fox and Anita Edwards both claimed victories in less than 40 minutes to jumpstart Salisbury’s singles sweep.
Fox, playing at No. 1, defeated Thao Le 6-0, 6-0 in 33 minutes. Le won only three service points in the first set, and Fox displayed deft touch with a backhand slice — a shot she wants to eliminate from her game — to cruise to the win.
“I’m trying to get out of it, but it was working pretty good today,” Fox said. “So I thought I’d throw it in.”
Edwards exited the court three minutes after Fox with a 6-0, 6-1 win againstCaty Carpenter at No. 4.
Edwards went with a different tactic than Fox, choosing to hit ground strokes that could pierce through the wind and overpower her opponent.
“I mix it up a lot with hard shots and lobs, but today I had to hit a lot harder shots,”Edwards said.
Kristy Woodson, Piper Cline and Andi Steele won in straight sets to give Salisbury a match-clinching five victories. Allison Somers completed the singles sweep by taking a third-set tiebreaker against Eva Baucom by a score of 7-4.
Salisbury (20-2), which swept doubles play, dominated on an afternoon that could have proved frustrating.
Myers simply instructed his team to play smart tennis and be ready to move quickly if the wind changed the direction of a shot.
Said Cline, “He told us to be careful with the wind, that they were a good team that would be consistent, so just play our game.”
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