SMOKING THE COMPETITION
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Undefeated Manasquan senior Tahlia Smoke is hoping to lead the Warriors to a Shore Conference Tournament title and make a deep run in the NJSIAA Singles Tournament after a tournament-filled summer of hard work.
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By Scott Stump - Senior Editor
After she had calmly dispatched talented Holmdel freshman Karolina Wojciak, 6-0, 6-2 in an eventual 4-1 loss to Holmdel last week, Manasquan senior first singles player Tahlia Smoke was walking off the court when she was approached by Holmdel head coach Chuck Chelednik.
Chelednik has coached several championship teams and currently has the top-seeded Hornets in the quarterfinals of the Shore Conference Tournament, so he knows high-level tennis when he sees it. Plus, besides playing the Warriors twice every season in Class A Central, Holmdel edged Manasquan 3-2 in last year's SCT final and could certainly see the Warriors again in this year's SCT final, so Chelednik is familiar with Smoke's game. Smoke and the Warriors are also in the SCT quarterfinals, where they will host Freehold on Friday.
"I've seen you play a lot of times, and I don't know if I've ever seen you play that well,"" Chelednik said following Smoke's victory. "What have you been doing?""
Hey, at least all that traveling amidst a summer where trips down the street to the beach were far and few between was worth it. Smoke spent the summer jetting to tournaments from Georgia and Tennessee to California with her family, soaking up the experience of high-level tennis wherever she went. Despite returning as the Shore Conference's top player, she felt she had much to work on heading into her senior year.
"I played a lot of tournaments this summer, and I feel like I'm hitting the ball very crisply,"" she said. "In high school tennis, when you play better players, you tend to play better. (Wojciak) was a good player.
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My sister (Farrah, Manasquan's second singles player) played her in a
tournament over the summer, and they had a grueling battle.""
Smoke, who is undefeated this season, worked hard on her serve after
double-faulting in some crucial spots last year and did plenty of sprinting and footwork drills to give her more range on the court.
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Manasquan senior Tahlia Smoke rips a return in a match against Holmdel's Karolina Wojciak last week.
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She also crossed paths with South Carolina resident Sarah Guzick, one of the Top 50 high school-age players in the country, and lost 7-5 in the third set, which boosted Smoke's confidence.
"I felt like I played incredible,"" she said.
After helping her team make what it hopes is a push toward an SCT title and a deep run in the state tournament, Smoke wants to carry that feeling right through to the NJSIAA Singles Tournament, where she finished 31-2 after reaching the quarterfinals last season.
"I would love to win the whole thing,"" she said. "I'm going to go there and take it one match at a time.""
For now, she will look forward to her regular-season matches against top opponents, which she highly anticipates because the high school season has much more of an ebb and flow to it than the consistently competitive tournament circuit. Unlike many top players, she said she has never had the urge to abandon her high school team to compete exclusively on the tournament circuit, having only missed one match in her four-year varsity career.
"Playing high school tennis is a different feeling from playing a regular (tournament) match,"" she said. "The intensity levels are different. I like playing the harder matches because I feel like I work harder. I would never want to leave my teammates because I have a lot of fun playing with my friends.""
Playing against Wojciak, Smoke could remember back to when she was a highly-touted freshman who routinely toppled upperclassmen in matches.
"I think I was a little fearless when I was a freshman,"" she said. "I just don't want to let freshman beat me now.""
Now she is an elder stateswoman, one of the leaders on the No. 2 seed in the SCT.
"She has provided great leadership and has worked hard to make herself into a great player,"" said Manasquan coach Rod Ravaioli.
Smoke hopes to pass it on to Farrah, who is much more emotional on the court but will be counted on next year to be one of the leaders.
"(I tell her) to just stay calm and focused,"" Tahlia said. "The person with the better attitude is going to be the person that wins.""
As far as the person who got her into tennis in the first place, that would be her older brother, Jarrad, a former Manasquan star who is now a sophomore tennis player at the U.S. Naval Academy. Tahlia's college choices include Longwood University, Central Florida, and, somewhat surprisingly, Air Force.
"Maybe I'll one-up my brother and go to Air Force,"" she said.
So she could see herself as a fighter pilot one day?
"Maybe, even though I can barely drive a car,"" she said before laughing.
Between her work ethic and her noticeable improvement, it appears as if Smoke is steering the way just fine right now.
E-mail: stump@digitalsports.com
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