Morgan tunes up for state tournament against Eagles

Published 9:44 pm Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Morgan Academy’s Mary Ashlyn Pearce races after a hard hit ball during her tennis match Tuesday against Fort Dale’s Jennifer Grace Arnold. Pearce joined Sophie Talton as the two Senators’ girls players to win single matches Tuesday.--Daniel Evans

Morgan Academy’s Mary Ashlyn Pearce races after a hard hit ball during her tennis match Tuesday against Fort Dale’s Jennifer Grace Arnold. Pearce joined Sophie Talton as the two Senators’ girls players to win single matches Tuesday.–Daniel Evans

With the Alabama Independent School Association tennis championships in less than a week, the Morgan Academy boys’ tennis team passed a final tuneup with flying colors.

The boys swept all five of their matches against Fort Dale Tuesday at the Selma city tennis courts. In a matchup of the team’s No. 1 players, Peyton Mathiews defeated Hunter Craig 6-0, 6-0. The rest of the team followed suit.

Will Sherrer shutout William Sherling (?) 6-0, 6-0; Elliot Oslund defeated Stephen Hartley 6-1, 6-0; Willis Watt Jones won 6-3, 6-0 over Melvin Keen; and Mason Perkins finished off the singles matches with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Andy Sor.

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The Senators also won both doubles matches as Mathiews and Oslund defeated Hunter and Keen 6-0, 6-0 and Sherrer and Perkins defeated Sherling and Hartley 6-0, 6-1.

As a team with only one loss the entire season — to three time defending champion Tuscaloosa Academy — the Senators look poised to compete for a state championship next week at Lagoon Park in Montgomery.

“We are looking forward to the state tournament and the opportunity to compete against the competition out there,” said Morgan head coach Baxter Stinson.

The Senators girls team didn’t fare as well. Morgan dropped to 3-5 as a team on the season after losing the majority of its matches Tuesday.

Among the bright spots were No. 2 Sophie Talton, who defeated Marion Lightfoot 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 and No. 5 Mary Ashlyn Pearce who won 6-2, 6-0 over Jennifer Grace Arnold.

Emily Sherrer fell to Ashton Scott 6-3, 6-4; Ellie Adams couldn’t hang with Mary Clair Carlton in a 6-2, 6-0  defeat and Madison Anne Caston defeated Annie Talton 6-1, 6-3. Sherrer and Sophie Talton did win a doubles match with Scott and Caston 8-5. Lightfoot and Carlton won the other match against Adams and Annie Talton 8-5.

“We played this girls team earlier in the season and they won all the matches,” Stinson said. “[The matches] were a lot closer this time.”