Coming off a highly successful freshman season last fall, Carson High School's Polly Johnson decided she wanted to take some time away from tennis.
Johnson says she only played sparingly between October and the end of summer, but it sure hasn't shown so far because she's 6-0 this season, including three victories at home during a Northern 4A conference match at Centennial Park on Tuesday afternoon.
Johnson defeated her three opponents by identical 6-0 scores to help the Senators to an 18-4 victory.
Carson is now 2-1 in conference, with a loss to Galena and win over Fallon. Wooster dropped to 0-3 on the season.
Last year, Johnson compiled a 27-2 regular season record and qualified for a trip when she placed third in girls singles at the Northern 4A zone tournament her zone highlight came with a victory over Douglas' talented Amber Oglesby in the third-place match.
"She's been rock solid," first-year Carson coach Kinkade DeJoseph said. "It looks like she's going to contend."
Johnson didn't spend a lot of time on the court during the offseason.
"I wanted to take time off. I'd play once every couple weeks, but that was about it," Johnson said. "I'm playing Ok now. It took a couple of weeks to come back, but I think I'm playing as well as I was last year.
"I'd like to have a good year. My goal is to play in the zone finals."
A big test will come Thursday when the Senators visit defending Northern 4A champion Reno.
"That should be a very good test for her," DeJoseph said.
In other action on Tuesday, sophomore Jouliana Kourenkova won two of her three matches from the No. 2 singles slot. She won by scores of 6-0 and 6-2, and lost to Wooster's No. 1 player, Amy Groshong, by a 6-1 score.
Carson's No. 1 doubles team of Kristen Foley and Natalie Rogers also won won three times, 6-1, 6-2 and 6-0. Rogers normally plays in the No. 3 singles position for the Senators.
