Sarah Finnegan
Mountain Brook Tennis
Mountain Brook's Paul Jones is shown during the Class 7A, Section 3 Tournament on Tuesday, April 18, 2017, at Spain Park High School in Hoover. Jones won the state title as a singles player.
MONTGOMERY – The Spartans pulled off the clean sweep.
The Mountain Brook High School boys and girls tennis teams took to Lagoon Park in Montgomery on Monday and Tuesday, April 24-25, and claimed the school’s 158th and 159th state championships in history by capturing both blue maps from the Class 7A tournament.
"It's so rewarding," said coach Susan Farlow. "They came out really motivated and wanted to do it for the team. It was so great to see."
The boys have now won three state championships in a row, unseating Vestavia Hills following four consecutive titles from 2011-2014. The Rebels qualified for the state tournament for the first time since then, and finished third with 22 points.
The Mountain Brook girls reclaimed the crown for the first time since 2014. Huntsville won it in 2015 and Vestavia Hills took it home in 2016.
On the boys side, the Spartans picked up 51 total points to claim the crown, with McGill-Toolen in second place with 27 points.
All six Mountain Brook singles players advanced to the final of their respective bracket, with No. 3 Paul Jones, No. 5 Alva Caine and No. 6 William Watts winning individual state championships. No. 1 Peter Hartman, No. 2 David Faulkner and No. 4 Chase Robinett each lost to a McGill-Toolen player in the finals.
Jones defeated Vestavia’s Sam Smith 6-4, 6-4 in the final to win, as he did not drop a set in the tournament. Caine also won all six sets he played at state, defeating Enterprise’s Ayden Peterson 6-3, 6-1 in the final. Watts beat Huntsville’s Reed Martinson 6-1, 6-3 in the final, as Watts also accomplished the feat of not yielding a set to an opponent.
Each of the three boys doubles teams advanced to the championship round as well, with the No. 3 pair of Watts and Andrew Karcher emerging victorious, 6-4, 6-1 over Auburn. The No. 1 duo of Hartman and Faulkner and the No. 2 team of Jones and Robinett each fell in the final.
The ladies boasted five champions in all, from the Nos. 1, 5 and 6 singles spots and the Nos. 2 and 3 doubles lines. Margaret Polk won the No. 1 singles title with a dominant 6-0, 6-2 victory over Huntsville’s Sydney Flesch in the final. Polk dropped just five games en route to three match wins.
Liz Vandevelde dropped just five games as well as she swept through the No. 5 singles bracket, taking down Mimi Tran from Fairhope in the championship. Morgan Jenkins took home the No. 6 title with a 6-2, 6-2 win over McGill-Toolen’s Rose Nicholas.
Sarah Cooper was a finalist at No. 2, while Ellie Polk competed at No. 3 and Cele Sullivan at No. 4.
Cooper and Sullivan took down the Spain Park duo of Lindsay Song and Riley Ford 6-3, 0-6, 6-1 to win the No. 2 doubles crown. The No. 3 team of Vandevelde and Maggie Duggan surrendered just six games en route to the title.
The Polk sisters competed in No. 1 doubles, and fell to another pair of sisters, Spain Park’s Sydney and Daryn Ellison, in the semifinals.
The girls team picked up 45 points in the tournament to lead Spain Park’s 35 points, in the Jags’ first appearance in the state tournament. Fairhope finished third with 23 points.
