Teams looking to get tuned up for next week’s state tennis tournaments, will get their chance when the 14th annual Julie Abraham Memorial tennis tournament begins today at the Halls Ferry Park courts.

The tournament features tennis teams from Vicksburg High, Warren Central and St. Aloysius, and gets started at 3 p.m. Unlike in past years, the format this year will be a straight team round-robin.

&#8220Basically, we just wanted to give everybody two matches, so it’s going to be a straight round robin, us against Warren Central and St. Al and St. Al against Warren Central,” said Vicksburg High tennis coach Kevin Manton.

&#8220It’s good for us because we had a match scheduled against Pearl this Monday get cancelled,” Manton said. &#8220It’s also good to get a match to play before Monday when we start the state tournament.”

Vicksburg should be a factor in the Class 5A State Tournament which gets underway Monday at 9 a.m. at the Parham Bridges Tennis Center in Jackson.

Ole Miss baseball signee Jordan Henry is the top seed in the Class 5A boys singles draw.

At the Abraham tourney, Henry will likely have matches against WC’s Nick Melby and St. Al’s Matthew Jenkins.

Manton feels the Abraham Tournament will be similiar to the two matches the Gators had earlier this season with their local foes. Vicksburg won both 4-1.

&#8220We beat both 4-1 this year and the four that won are all qualified to play at the state tournament. WC has their mixed team qualified and St. Al has a couple, including Jeremy White and Bonney (Neill) in mixed,” Manton said.

White and Neill won the Class 1A mixed doubles title last year, the lone Vicksburg team or player to win a state crown.

Manton says it’s his girls and boys doubles teams that have made the most strides this spring. The Gators entered the Region 2-5A tournament as a No. 2 seed but pulled off the upset of Madison Central by winning both the boys and girls doubles titles in tough, three-set matches.

&#8220When we played Madison here, we lost to them in three sets in girls doubles, but we beat them in the region. Our boys doubles team of Willie Brown and Jordan McBride also won in three sets.”

The boys and girls doubles will be the most competitive part of the Abraham Tournament as both the Vikings and Flashes have solid teams.

The tournament is named after Julie Abraham, a former tennis player at St. Al who died in 1989 during her freshman year at Ole Miss. Julie’s father, Freddy, will be on hand to present the winners’ trophies.

&#8220This is a good, healthy competition for our city schools in St. Al, Vicksburg and Warren Central. It’s good to have it right before these teams play before the state tournament. And we’re real proud that they do it in Julie’s honor,” Abraham said.

Briarfield takes.

MPSA crown.

Briarfield Academy won the girls team title in the MPSA Class A tennis tournament Wednesday at Parham Bridges in Jackson.

The Lady Rebels totaled four points to slip past two-time defending state champion River Oaks.

Briarfield got two points each from its title winning No. 1 and No. 2 girls doubles teams. In No. 1, Aron Brown and Carleigh Keene teamed up to beat a pair from Humprheys Academy 6-2, 6-3.

In No. 2 doubles, Lori Lensing and Callie Lensing won their state title match, 6-4, 6-2.