SharePoint LISTS.ASMX web services call are slow

I have a MVC4 web application tied to a back end SharePoint 2007 server using LISTS.ASMX and SEARCH.ASMX.

Search is quite fast.

LISTS.ASMX on the other hand is very slow.  It can take 3-5 seconds to complete the call to retrieve 100 items.

My document library that I can requesting items from is abuot 90,000 items, but they are divided into folders of no more than 1,000 each.

How can I speed this up?

Thanks.

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