photo by Hannah Reel

Wilkinson County Christian Academy’s Carol Johnson returns the ball to Veritas School’s Noel Collier during the MPSA Class A Tennis Tournament Tuesday at Duncan Park.

Seedings hold in South State tennis tourney

By Krysten Oliphant (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Wednesday, April 29, 2009

NATCHEZ — After one day of play in the MPSA Class A South State Tennis Tournament, the results were mostly as expected.

Most of the seedings held in the early rounds of the tournament hosted by Huntington, with No. 1 Tensas reaching the semifinals of No. 1 girls doubles, No. 3-seed Huntington heading to the semifinals in the No. 1 girls singles bracket, and No. 2 Huntington playing in the No. 2 girls singles bracket.

But Huntington’s No. 2 girls doubles top-seeded team of Abbey Ashmore and Allie Boothe was upset in the semifinals by Tensas Academy 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

“That was their first loss of the season,” Huntington coach Emily Guida said. “The pair that Tensas had (Emma Arceneaux and Paige Plaisance) had been playing singles all year. But their coach paired them as a team, and they’re very good together. It was a good match.”

Emilee Johns will play WCCA’s Carol Johnson in the semifinals of the No. 2 girls singles bracket after beating Newton Academy’s Rayanne Craven 6-0, 6-1.

Huntington’s Sara Hoover and Julia Corbett, the No. 2 seed in the No. 1 girls doubles, fell to No. 3 WCCA’s Hannah Ashley and Caroline Walker 6-3, 6-2. WCCA will face Tensas Academy in the finals.

Julie Moak (No. 3 in No. 1 girls singles) will be in the semifinals against No. 2 Newton Academy’s Hannah Peoples today in the only match between local teams.

“There was a lot of good tennis played (Tuesday),” Guida said. “A lot of the matches went to three sets with 10-point tie-breakers. We had one rain delay, so we finished at about 7:45 p.m.”

None on Huntington’s boys teams advanced out of the first round. WCCA’s No. 1 boys double team of George and Justin Davis will take on University Christian School, and the No. 2 boys double team of Tanner McGraw and Chris Houghton will play UCS in the finals.

WCCA and Glenbrook will match up in the No. 2 boys singles finals, and the mixed doubles semifinals matchup of WCCA and Heidelberg will be played at 9 a.m. at Trinity.

All other matches will be at Duncan Park, and the tournament is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. today.

Singles matches will play first, and finals will begin at approximately 11:30.