By Rich Fisher, Sports Editor
Ali Noll may not have won the NJSIAA Singles Tennis Championship, but she sure as heck may have affected who did.
Making her first appearance in state singles competition, the South Brunswick High junior had an impressive showing by winning two matches on Day One, then battling the tournament’s number one seed hard on Day Two.
Playing in the round of 32, Noll extended Millburn’s Rachel Cantor in Sunday morning’s third-round action. It was only two sets, but they were tight, 6-4, 6-4 sets on a hot day.
In the first set, Noll rallied to within a game from 3-1, 4-2 and 5-3 deficits but could not overcome the top seed. In the second, she came back from a 5-2 hole to make it 5-4 before Cantor closed it out.
Whether that had an effect on the Millburn star is uncertain, but with little rest, she was stunned in the round of 16 by Morris Hills’ Cristina Nunez.
”Ali probably took something out of her because she was out there a long time,” Viking coach Nancy McDonald said. “They started at 9 a.m. and had to go back out at 11:30, so she might have been a little worn out from the match Ali gave her.”
Whether it had an affect or not, still can not take away from the outstanding tournament Noll enjoyed as she raised her record to 10-5.
In Saturday’s first round, she defeated Dayton’s Caroline Egnatuk, 6-4, 6-4, to start things off.
”I don’t think she was nervous because she has played in USTA Tournaments and the Cryan Tournament, so the tournament thing didn’t have her nervous,” McDonald said. “But I think there was a little anxiety as far as this tournament goes, because she was going against a girl she never played before. So first she had to get through that.”
Once that was over, there was a long wait at Mercer County Park as the other first-round matches were completed. Once they were, the unseeded Noll took on 17-24 alpha-seeded Lauren Balsamo of Wall, and came up with a 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 victory.
”She played second singles for Wall, but all three of their singles players were in the tournament, that’s how good they are,” McDonald said. “Ali had seen her in USTA tournaments prior, but hadn’t really played her in a while. She came alive in the second set and started making some shots, but Ali got her in the third set.
”Ali beat a very good player. That was a breakthrough win for her, to come up against a girl of that caliber and beat her.”
That left Noll as one of the top 32 singles players in the state, and she did nothing to diminish that status with her effort against Cantor.
”She stayed consistent and pulled out points,” McDonald said. “She played very well. The other girl fell behind, she looked lethargic at first. But she got it together and they played two good, close matches.
”(Cantor) made some unforced errors in the first set. In the second set Ali played the same, but the other girl made less errors. She didn’t miss. But Ali hung in there. She just kept playing one game at a time. Her defensive play was outstanding. She ran down ever ball she was given.”
The end result is that it was a huge step forward for Noll, who did not qualify as a freshman and who missed her chance to qualify due to injury last year. With one more year to go, she could be a force to be reckoned with in 2009.
”She not only qualified, but she turned some heads,” McDonald said. “There were people who stopped and watched her play the girl from Millburn. It was like ‘Hey, she’s not rolling through this girl.’”
According to McDonald, Noll plays with an intense concentration.
”She played aggressive and she’s very focused,” the coach said. “She has a very good demeanor, she never gets down on herself.
”If she misses something easy, then all of a sudden does something stupid, then she gets mad at herself. But you’d never know she was disappointed, she never shows it. She’s very low keyed, she does her job out there and she’s getting better and better in match play.”
Good enough, in fact, to possibly have influenced the outcome of the state’s biggest high school tournament.

