Photo courtesy of Mountain Brook Athletics
The Mountain Brook High School boys and girls tennis teams swept the Class 6A state championships on April 26, 2024, at the Mobile Tennis Center.
The Mountain Brook High School tennis teams did it again.
For the third time since 2017, the Mountain Brook boys and girls swept the state championship trophies, doing so for the second straight year. The Spartans took home the Class 6A boys and girls titles April 26 at the Mobile Tennis Center.
However, the path to get there was far from straightforward. The boys dominated the Class 6A competition, but the girls prevailed in a thrilling faceoff with St. Paul’s to win.
Mountain Brook’s boys scored 84 points to win the state title for the second straight year. No other team was close, with runner-up Hartselle scoring 39 points.
“This team was very determined,” Mountain Brook coach Susan Farlow said. “They wanted to win every position and were heavy favorites, for sure. Everyone had some tough matches, but as a whole, the boys team was the heavy favorite.”
The boys nearly pulled that off, winning eight of nine possible courts in the competition. In singles, Luke Schwefler, Guy Mitchell, Max Gayden, Hews Goodson and George Dumas won championships. Thomas Austin narrowly fell in the No. 3 singles final in a third-set tiebreaker.
The Spartans dominated the doubles competition as well, with the tandems of Gayden and Schwefler, Mitchell and Austin, and Goodson and Dumas each cruising to victory.
St. Paul’s gave Mountain Brook a stern challenge on the girls side, pushing the Spartans to the end.
It came down to the doubles competitions, as the two teams were tied following the six singles flights, each team staking claim to three titles. The No. 2 tandem of Ann Coleman and Mae Mae Lacey prevailed against Northridge, winning 13-11 in a third-set tiebreaker. The No. 1 group of Pippa Roy and Annie Lacey followed that up with a win to give the Spartans the title.
“There was a lot of jubilation on our side,” said Farlow, who noted the No. 1 tandem stopped its match to take in the rest of the No. 2 match. “This group of senior girls knows how to compete.”
As tough as that final match was for that No. 2 pair, there was a tough semifinal match just to get there. Coleman and Lacey defeated a St. Paul’s tandem in straight sets that had previously knocked them off earlier in the season.
Mountain Brook scored 72 points, to 69 points for St. Paul’s. It is the girls program’s seventh consecutive state title, subtracting the canceled 2020 season.
Mountain Brook took three of the six singles courts, with Ann Royal Goodson, Mae Mae Lacey and Mary Jackson Darnall winning at No. 3, 5 and 6, respectively. Pippa Roy advanced to the semifinals at No. 1 singles, while Annie Lacey and Mary Neale Polk reached the final in the other two singles brackets.
The No. 2 doubles tandem of Polk and Darnall won a match to reach the second round.
That is now 61 total state championships for the Mountain Brook tennis programs, 33 for the girls and 28 for the boys.
“It was sweet,” Farlow said.
Schwefler and Mitchell are the two seniors for the Mountain Brook boys and will be tough to replace. There are six seniors on the girls team, with Polk, Mae Mae Lacey, Annie Lacey, Roy, Coleman and Liza Brewer all departing the Spartans’ lineup.
