The Hornets.

 

AJ Jarrell and the Davis brothers.

 

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — Still under the radar, but still playing, and only four teams are left now.

Salisbury’s second-seeded boys tennis team won again in the 2A dual team state playoffs on Wednesday, beating 14th-seeded Lincoln Charter 5-0 in a fourth-round match.

Forget where the teams were seeded. Forget their records. Salisbury is 20-1, but not many gurus thought the Hornets would win in the second round, much less the fourth.

No. 2 singles didn’t finish on Wednesday. That’s the court where Gray Davis plays for the Hornets.

He was still involved in a struggle, a deuce-filled marathon, when he heard his teammates screaming and saw them running toward him with grins on their faces. It was all over at 5-0, and there was no need for him to risk injury with even bigger matches coming up. Salisbury will host Pine Lake Prep next Tuesday in the regional final. Seeded eighth, Pine Lake Prep, state runner-up in 2024 and state champ in 2023, knocked out No. 1 seed R-S Central in Round 3.

“When we looked at rankings early in the season, we were like ninth one week and then we dropped completely out of it for a while,” said Salisbury No. 1 seed Archibald “AJ” Jarrell. “So, yeah, we have flown under the radar this season, but it’s been an amazing season.”

Jarrell was in a tussle on Wednesday with Lincoln Charter’s Noah Cochran.

“Lincoln Charter’s top guys, Gray Davis and I have been up against them before in doubles in the state individual tournament,” Jarrell said. “They’re really tough. I lost my first set 6-4, didn’t play all that well, and I started  looking around, and it looks like their guys are making great shots on every court, and I’m thinking, ‘I’ve got to win this match. We’re gonna need it.'”

Jarrell fell behind 5-3 in the second set, but was able to fight back to 5-all. Then he finally took control and won 7-5 to level the match.

“I changed things up more in the second set, threw in more slices, but the biggest thing that helped me was just serving more consistently,” Jarrell said.

Splitting the first two sets meant a third-set tiebreaker to 10 points.

“Those tiebreakers are always scary because the other guy can get momentum and bad things can happen fast,” Jarrell said. “I was in a tiebreaker with Reagan early this season and I got down like 5-0 in 30 seconds. But that didn’t happen this time.”

Jarrell won the tiebreaker 10-4. That was a major swing for the Hornets, as a match that had looked lost was transformed into a huge win.

Bryant Davis, Gray’s younger brother, has been a rock at No. 3 all season. After dominating the first set, he had to fight for the second, but he won 6-0, 7-5.

“Bryant was our MVP today, really, because he was struggling with his back, and we weren’t sure Wednesday morning if he’d even be able to play,” Jarrell said. “He’s a very tough kid. Right after he won his match, he was lying flat on his back on a yoga mat, but he did what he needed to do.”

At No. 4, Ben Lawson experienced smooth sailing. He was a 6-1, 6-2 winner.

At No. 6, Jashaun Epps blew away his opponent 6-0, 6-0.

The other competitive singles match was at No. 5, but Farah Hassan won 6-2, 7-6.

Jarrell, a sophomore, the Davis brothers and Lawson, a junior, were staples of a very good Salisbury lineup last season, but the Hornets lost Reid Hlavacek and Sawyer Cornelison from that squad.

Salisbury coach Milton Griffith, the former Livingstone College football player who celebrated his 300th win as a tennis head coach earlier this season, was able to fill in the gaps with the surprise emergence of Hassan and Epps. They were total unknowns, but they have basically provided automatic victories at No. 5 and No. 6 singles as well as No. 3 doubles.

Both have been playing tennis for only a little over a year.

“I remember Jashaun coming out to join us last year after the basketball team finished their playoff run and after a month, he had a good forehand,” Jarrell said. “I was thinking he could really help us if he stuck with it. Well, he more than stuck with it. He probably played more tennis than any of us in the off-season and the progress he made in a short time was amazing. He went from being a guy who barely knew how to play to being a guy I could go out to City Park and hit competitively with.”

Playoff teams have outstanding players at the top, but the Hornets usually have the advantage at the bottom of the lineup.

“I think we were underrated all along as a team because people knew we’d lost key guys, but no one had any clue about Jashaun and Hassan because they never saw them play last year,” Jarrell said. “Hassan has hit some of the amazing shots this year that I’ve ever seen. Those two have taken a lot of pressure off the top seeds.”

In the 2A portion of the 1A/2A Central Carolina Conference Tournament, Jarrell and Gray Davis had to beat Hassan and Epps in the final.

Then in the 2A Midwest Regional, Jarrell and Gray Davis won the doubles championship, while Hassan and Epps placed fourth to qualify for the state tournament.

“I’m sure there aren’t many teams in the state that can say they have their No. 3 doubles team in the state tournament,” Jarrell said.

Salisbury also will have Bryant Davis, the singles champ for the conference and runner-up for the region, in the state event.

Lawson didn’t make the state in singles, but he’s come back strong in the playoffs.

The Hornets breezed through CCC play as they always do, but Griffith spiced up the schedule with 4A schools such as Reagan and Hickory Ridge, and that experience has proven helpful.

The playoffs have been challenging. After getting a first-round bye, the Hornets encountered Community School of Davidson in Round 2. Community School of Davidson was picked by some as a darkhorse for the state championship. The Hornets won 5-1. Griffith said it was a second-round match that felt like a fourth-rounder.

Third-round opponent CD Owen also was tough. CD Owen got points at 1 and 2 singles, but the Hornets won 5-2 with depth. It was Hassan and Epps who won the doubles match that sent the Hornets to Round 4.

Now Lincoln Charter has been added to the list of strong teams the Hornets have outlasted.

“Yeah, we’re still playing,” Jarrell said. “Really proud of everyone.”