| Tuesday night, Salisbury tennis coach Bill
Lee sat in the rain and watched Hornet soccer star Jacob Pace score the 100th goal of his
career. Now, Lee is looking
forward to sitting in the sunshine next fall and watching another century mark
celebration. Because in September of 2000 — if all goes according to plan — the
Salisbury tennis team will post its 100th consecutive conference victory.
“We’re gonna go for one
hundred,” said Lee, whose team is on its way to its 10th straight conference title.
“We’re gonna try to do the Jake Pace thing.”
One hundred — now, that would
be a streak. The mother of all streaks.
The Streak began in 1989.
That’s a long time ago.
That’s the year an earthquake hit the World Series and HurricaneHugo hit the
Carolinas. The year Ronald Reagan turned the White House keys over to George Bush. And the
year that many of the current Hornets started pre-school.
Legend has it that the Hornets
lost a match to Central Cabarrus one September day in ‘89 (yes, Salisbury played at
the 3A level in those ancient times), and then decided they weren’t going to lose any
more.
Not ever.
n
Win No. 92 in The Streak came
Thursday at City Park, where Lee’s legions whipped Lexington, the latest pretender to
the Hornets’ throne.
Whipped is not too strong a verb.
The ballyhooed potential streak-ending showdown was over before doubles began.
The singles scoreboard read: 5-1
Hornets. Then the Hornets played doubles for the fun of it — and maybe to send a
message to the very strong Yellow Jackets, who will likely stare across the net at them
again in the state 2A quarterfinals.
A lot of people flocked to the
courts to watch Salisbury nail down No. 92.
Most had already witnessed the
Hornets pull off a water-to-wine sort of miracle at Lexington on Sept. 7 — to push
The Streak to 88.
On that day, the Hornets had to
sweep doubles to keep The Streak going. Lee spent that wild afternoon knocking on wood.
Thursday, though, his girls scored an impressive early knockout.
“This one wasn’t as
thrill-packed,” said Lee, who certainly wasn’t complaining. “But it was
still exciting, because of how well we played.”
It started with Tonya Fox at No. 2
and Doris Reinholz at No. 3. They were the only Hornets who won in singles at Lexington,
and Lee knew they absolutely had to repeat.
The talented duo took care of
business. Fox has lost once this season, and Reinholz hasn’t lost at all. And they
weren’t about to lose this time. They dropped just six games between them, and the
Hornets led 2-0.
Then came the tide-turner. Anita
Edwards was a surprise winner at No. 4. Edwards had lost at No. 6 at Lexington, but is
improving by the minute.
“That was the big one,”
said Lee. “Anita played really well, and maybe that helped some of the others
relax.”
The tally went to 4-0 when Brandy
Albracht smashed her opponent at No. 6. Albracht lost only one game.
“I concentrated more today
and I took my time,” said Albracht.
“Brandy was on cruise
control,” said Lee. “She’s been wonderful since we moved her to No. 6. She
gives us a solid anchor.”
Undefeated Lane Wallace, who
stepped into the lineup permanently after the close call at Lexington, then wrapped up the
match with a win at No. 5.
“Sometimes, Lane plays
forever,” said a smiling Lee. “But she’s steady.”
Ironically, the day’s best
match resulted in the Hornets’ only loss.
That was at No. 1, where Catherine
Koontz outlasted Salisbury’s Michelle Leonard in a marathon that began in warm
sunshine and ended with Leonard’s teammates cheering her on, while buried in
blankets.
Leonard won the first set, then
lost the second set on a tiebreaker. She dropped another tiebreaker (8-6) to lose the
match. It was Leonard’s second loss of the season. Both times the culprit has been
Koontz.
“Michelle was terrific,”
said Lee. “She did so many neat things, mixed it up so well. There weren’t many
unforced errors out there. It was just two great players playing great tennis.”
Lee had kidded Koontz’ mother
before the match that the two No. 1s might as well skip their scheduled two sets and go
straight to a tiebreaker.
Several hours later, Lee was
proved a prophet.
A better prophet than those who
predicted that it was time for the Streak to end.
That’s 92, folks — and
counting. |
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