By Bret Strelow
bstrelow@salisburypost.com
Hannah Lebowitz, Joy Loeblein, Erika Nelson and Katelyn Storey will represent Salisbury today at the 2A tennis championships in Cary.
Lebowitz (Midwest champion) and Loeblein (third place) are in the 16-player singles field. Nelson-Storey (Midwest champs) qualified in doubles.
* Lebowitz, 23-1 this season and 97-5 for her career, will face East Regional No. 4 seed Morgan Sheehan of Swansboro in the first round. The winner will play either Northwood’s Jennifer Devinney or Brevard’s Lauren Fuller for a berth in Saturday’s semifinals.
Lebowitz, a senior, reached the singles semifinals in 2007 and won a state doubles title with Kirstin Meyerhoeffer last year.
Two singles semifinalists from last year are back, but Lebowitz has earned straight-set wins over North Stanly’s Hannah Herlocker and West Lincoln’s Laura Baker in the last 11 days. Cardinal Gibbons’ Lauren Brooker and West Henderson’s Amie Cloer, finalists in 2008, are in 3A now.
The regional champs in 2A are Lebowitz, Baker (West), Topsail’s Jessica Patterson (East) and Reidsville’s Francie Trent (Mideast). Patterson, who is in Lebowitz’s half of the bracket, reached the 1A quarterfinals last year.
* Loeblein (23-2) was a doubles finalist last year as a freshman, and she’ll take on Edenton Holmes’ Elizabeth Leary in the round of 16.
* Nelson-Storey (23-0) will play East No. 4 seed Samantha Taylor-Abby Sugg of Greene Central. Taylor-Sugg lost 6-1, 6-2 to Loeblein-Shea Comadoll in last year’s quarterfinals.