The term ‘rebuilding’ is often used to refer to high school or college teams that have graduated a lot of players and need to replace them with new talent.

If that’s rebuilding, then what the Salisbury girls tennis team is doing this year must be more akin to manufacturing the building products from scratch, and then rebuilding from the ground up.

For the past few years the Falcons didn’t even have enough players to field a full team. Their opponents would receive forfeit wins for the line up positions Salisbury couldn’t fill at the bottom of the singles line up and most of the doubles card.

But this year things have changed. On most days the Falcons have enough players to fill a lineup, although with many of them participating in other sports and activities, there are still some empty spots some days.

This year’s team is 0-7 through the first half of the season and has faced some top competition. But the players are competing and the program is headed in the right direction after a few lean years.

All but one team match this year has come by way of shut out, but the signs of an improving team are showing.

In a 4-1 loss to Pen Argyl on Aug. 26, the Salisbury doubles team of Kacie Kaough and Katya Hunter got the Falcons their first team point of the season when they won the No. 2 doubles match 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. In that same match, Jaylene Vasquez came close to picking up a win at No. 1 singles when she won the first set 6-4, but dropped the second 6-1 and fell in a tiebreaker, 10-8.

Also against Wilson, the team of Brinlee Neitz and Annissa Slack played a close match at No. 1 doubles, falling 6-4, 6-4.

Salisbury has three matches remaining on this year’s regular season schedule. They host Bangor Wednesday and Notre Dame (Green Pond) Monday before finishing the season at Palisades on Sept. 17.