A Selma tennis team won the United States Tennis Association’s Alabama Junior Team Tennis State Championship Sunday in Auburn and is still playing for a national title.

Selma’s 14-and-under USTA junior tennis team, coached by Baxter Stinson and captain Stacey Adams, went undefeated during the round robin tournament. As the only team in the seven-team division that went undefeated, they were named state champions.

Stinson, who has been involved with the junior tennis teams in Selma for five years, said the 14-and-under team was the first he’s had win a state title.

“It’s a pretty big deal. We were playing teams from Mobile, a couple of teams from Birmingham and we played a team from Tuscaloosa,” said Stinson, who also serves as Morgan Academy’s tennis coach. “It was just like Morgan Academy tennis really. It is little bitty Selma competing against all these big dogs and now not even just competing but we beat them and beat them well.”

The team will move onto the southern sectional, which will be held in Cayce, S.C. Aug. 21-23. If they win there, they will move onto the UTSA National Tennis Championship in South Carolina Oct. 15-18.

The players on the 14-and-under team were Taylor Jones, Ed Williams, Belal Hammad, Mason Perkins, Ellie Adams, Mary Ashlyn Pearce, Lilly Youngblood, Judy Assaad and Mallory Mathiews.

More than 500 youth participated in the tournament at Auburn. Stinson said 35 players from Selma took part, including two 10-and-under teams, a 12-and-under team and an 18-and-under team. Stinson coaches all five teams.

The 12-and-under and 18-and-under teams finished second in their flights.

“This is the best we’ve ever done, and it’s the most teams we’ve ever taken,” he said.

Stinson said the large participation from youth in Selma shows the game is progressing in the Queen City.

“It just kind of tells us we’re heading in the right direction,” Stinson said.