Sacred Heart has won the past two Class 1A team tennis titles. St. Aloysius tennis coach Rick Shields said, however, that the Hattiesburg school is pretty concerned about Friday’s Class 1A semifinal.

“I’ve heard their coach has been calling the coach at Cathedral trying to figure out what kind of lineup we will use. But they don’t know. We used two different lineups and beat Cathedral both times. One was 4-3 and the last one was 5-2,” Shields said.

The 5-2 win came in the 1A quarterfinals, which advanced the Flashes (12-2) to the state semifinals. Sacred Heart will host the seven-match semifinal on Friday morning at 8:30 at the Hattiesburg Racquet Club.

“I think what you have between us and Sacred Heart is the two best teams in 1A meeting in the semifinal. We’ve already beaten one of the two finalists in the north in Greenville St. Joe, 5-2, this year,” Shields said.

“I know Sacred Heart is tough. They’ve won it two years in a row. They are really strong with their boys. But I think we have a good chance to pull it off. Our best hope is for our girls to pull out their matches and then steal one in either mixed or a boys doubles match. That’s why I’ve been studying a lot of lineups.”

St. Aloysius has made big strides this season under Shields, who played tennis at Alcorn State and was Warren Central’s tennis coach for several years.

“We’ve got a lot of good young players and they came on during the past summer,” Shields said.

One of those has been eighth grader Austin Mathis.

“He’s going to be a dynamo,” Shields said.

Mathis gave Vicksburg High’s Donald Brown a tough, two-set match at last month’s Julie Abraham Tournament, taking six games. Because Sacred Heart has one of the state’s top junior players in boys singles, Shields will likely pair Mathis with his top girl, Ashley Piazza, in mixed doubles.

“We’ve grown a lot in the last year,” Piazza said. “We’ve done really well.”

Piazza says getting pickup games with Vicksburg’s reigning state champion from last year, Christine Figueroa, has helped her.

“Christine hits the ball hard and that helps me a lot when I face the tougher players. Me and Austin have gotten to play her and Donald some to get ready for Sacred Heart. I’ve played against some of Sacred Heart’s players before at other (U.S. Tennis Association) tournaments,” she said.

In other tennis action, Warren Central’s team’s season came to an end Monday with a 6-1 match loss to Madison Central in the Class 6A quarterfinals in Madison.

“Our No. 1 girls team of Shelby (Claire Liddell) and Lauren (Pratt) won their match and we had some good performances from our No. 2 boys doubles and in boys singles.” WC coach Paige Pratt said. WC ends the year at 8-6 and was second in both the Julie Abraham and Division 4-6A Tournaments.