Everyone involved with East Rowan tennis expects to make the state 3A dual team playoffs every year.

Coach Worth Roberts expects it, the girls expect it, their parents and fans expect it.

In 1999, however, nothing’s come easy for a Mustang team that’s putting the pieces back together after losing the 2-3-4 players off last year’s squad.

East banged into a big bump in the road last week when it dropped a 5-4 South Piedmont Conference heartbreaker at Harding. It was a match Roberts expected to win, but it turned out to be the match from, well, the match from heck.

Unbelievably, East lost on tiebreakers at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles. Then it lost yet another tiebreaker at No. 3 doubles to seal its fate. On the night, five matches went to tiebreakers, and East (Mary Clark Roberts-Ashley Hayden at No. 1 doubles) won just one.

“That night of the Harding match was a long one,” said Roberts.

Long because the Mustangs got back to Granite Quarry at 10 p.m. And long because their state playoff hopes had taken a major hit.

The Mustangs didn’t sulk, though. Instead, they started spending a good chunk of their practice time on tiebreakers.

“You have to do that,” said Roberts, “because tiebreakers are a completely different game.”

East didn’t have to wait long to put its new tiebreaker techniques to good use. West Rowan visited on Friday in a makeup match.

East won 7-2, but that hardly tells the whole story.

The Mustangs and Falcons (who had already beaten Harding) staged an epic battle. Fortunately, they got started early at 3 p.m., because the match lasted right up to the 7:30 kickoff of the East-West football game across the street.

East’s Ashley Burleson and West’s Anna Brown were the headliners. They fought for three hours at No. 4 singles. “We thought,” said Roberts, “that they had decided to play all night.”

Four of the singles matches involved tiebreakers, but this time the Mustangs won three. That made the difference.

Roberts said the key was Ashley Weddington rallying past Natalie Hall at No. 2 singles. Weddington lost the first set, but won the second, and then took a 7-4 tiebreaker. Burleson and Karen Walser also won via tiebreakers for East.

“Winning this one put us back in the hunt,” said Roberts. “And we’ll be practicing tiebreakers again this week.”

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INTHEDARK: East still has to finish a tight SPC match with Piedmont that was suspended due to darkness.

The teams split singles, and East had a comfortable lead in No. 1 doubles when play was stopped. No. 2 and No. 3 doubles had not started.

East will also make up a big SPC match with Northwest Cabarrus on Thursday. It was washed out Monday.

In the SPC, there’s not much to choose among the top seven squads (Central Cabarrus and Kannapolis appear to be the only weak teams). That means West, despite an unimpressive overall mark, is very much in the chase for one of four state 3A playoff berths.

Leading the Falcons of late have been No. 1 doubles partners Lauren Duffy and Jennifer Kluttz.

Kluttz won her match at East, and was awesome in teaming with Duffy for a doubles win in West’s 7-2 loss to Northwest Cabarrus. Duffy, playing No. 1, was the only Falcon to prevail in singles against the Trojans.

Kluttz and Duffy were two of four Falcons to win 6-0, 6-0 in singles in a 9-0 romp over Kannapolis. That match was moved to West, because the Kannapolis courts were under repair.

The Cavaliers (7-4, 4-4 CCC) dropped last week’s showdown with High Point Central 6-3, and are all but assured of missing the state 2A playoffs.

The Cavs weren’t quite deep enough this year, despite some stellar individual efforts.

Meredith Lentz is a spectacular 10-1 at No. 4. Other leaders are Stacey Witkowski (7-4 at No. 1); Pam Cleveland (9-2 at No. 2); and Jenna Wooten (6-5 at No. 3).

North’s No. 1 doubles unit of Witkowski-Cleveland has lost just once all season — to Salisbury’s Michelle Leonard-Tonya Fox. Lentz and Wooten are 10-1 at No. 2 doubles.

The second meeting of the Hornets and Cavs was moved from Monday to October 5.

The Hornets (13-0) are gearing up for Wednesday’s match-of-the-year battle with Lexington at City Park.

The once-beaten Yellow Jackets extended the Hornets in the first meeting of the teams, before being swept in doubles to fall 5-4.

Salisbury coach Bill Lee is concerned, but feels his team can hold serve on its home ground.

“We feel good about where we are,” he said. “We think we’re a little better now at 4-5-6 then we were the first time we played them.”

Lee cites No. 4 player Anita Edwards as one of the keys.

“She’s putting it together, hitting the ball much more consistently,” he said. “She loves the doubles, but now her singles are coming around. Also, Lane Wallace has stabilized No. 5 and Brandy Albracht (No. 6) is playing much better than she was then.”

Lee says his team must win at No. 2 (Fox) and No. 3 (Doris Reinholz), and get the breaks in some of the flip-a-coin matchups.

The match to watch will be at No. 1 singles, where Leonard will try to avenge her only loss of the season to Catherine Koontz. That one will likely be the best prep match staged on a Rowan court this fall.

“We can win that one,” said Lee. “I believe Michelle can win and Michelle does too. Koontz is very good, but it’ll be just like their last match. It’ll come down to which way the ball bounces.”

This week was the calm before the storm for the Hornets, who breezed by Ledford 9-0. But the lightning will be flashing and the thunder rolling come Wednesday.

“It’s going to be a tough one,” said Lee. “If we can beat Lexington again, it’ll say an awful lot about our team.”

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