Lions dominate, win 3rd straight tennis title
MOBILE — The Lions couldn’t have secured any more points if they wanted.
Briarwood Christian School’s boys tennis team secured a maximum 84 points at the Class 6A state tournament April 23 at the Mobile Tennis Center. The Lions won all six singles brackets and all three doubles brackets to dominate the competition and win their third consecutive state championship.
“I’m excited for these guys and their hard work, and it’s a fun position to be in,” coach Jeremy Mears said.
After winning it all each of the last two years, the Lions entered the 2019 season with a goal of sweeping every bracket in the state tournament. Their only loss on the season was to Montverde Academy out of Florida, which boasts one of the top prep tennis teams in the country.
Everything went according to plan all season long and through much of the state tournament, until the No. 3 doubles finals. Alex Felts and Will Tarter won the first set of their final 6-1 before dropping the second set 6-3 and falling behind 4-0 in the third. The duo got on the board to cut it to 4-1 before a changeover and a brief chat with Mears.
“I challenged both of them,” he said. “We’ve got to get aggressive. If we’re going down, we’re going down fighting.”
They fought, but they didn’t go down. Felts and Tarter rallied to win the ensuing five games and the final six of the match to take the set and title.
“When you get momentum on your side, it’s a thing of beauty,” Mears said.
In order, Luke Wolf, John Wolf, Connor Coleman, Ethan Carr, Felts and Tarter won their singles brackets. Luke Wolf and Coleman won in No. 1 doubles finals, John Wolf and Carr teamed up to win at No. 2, and Felts and Tarter won at No. 3. Out of the nine brackets, Briarwood lost just two sets total in the tournament.
Mears credits much of that success to John Wolf and Coleman, who filled leadership roles and pushed the team to improve continually despite its dominance.
“I didn’t want our guys to get complacent and feel entitled,” Mears said.
The team had no seniors this year, so a dropoff is not expected for the Lions. Outside of the six that competed at state, Ryan Border, Joseph Hopkins, Aubrey Middleton and Andy Wan also played throughout the season.
The girls team claimed fifth place at the state tournament, totaling 32 points. UMS-Wright won the tournament with 54 points, followed by St. Paul’s (48), Northridge (43) and Decatur (37).
Mears said he was pleased with the team's performance at state. A team that saw a few young players step into bigger roles performed well to win its section the week prior and then played competitively against the state’s best.
“Sometimes you go down to state and have regrets. We had zero regrets on the girls side,” he said. “We are really pleased with how we showed up, competed.”
Kara Coleman won the individual title in No. 2 singles, winning her championship match 6-1, 6-0. Callie Ware advanced to the final in No. 1 singles, with Grayson Emerson, Anna Ferguson and Rachel Payne each making it to the semifinals. Holly Hancock was a quarterfinalist as well. Ware and Coleman made it to the semis at No. 1 doubles. Emerson and Hancock were the No. 2 pair, while Ferguson and Lauren Hancock competed at No. 3.
Campbell Ragsdale, Audrey Dykes and Lucy Gardner also played for the girls team throughout the season.