JACKSON — When she paired her top boys player, senior Donald Brown, with one of the top junior girls in Mississippi, Christine Figueroa, Vicksburg tennis coach Vickie Bailey knew she had a contender for a state title. She knew they’d be good.

They were good and then some. Try dominating.

Brown and Figueroa, a junior, blitzed Madison Central’s Mary Evelyn Carrol and Brigton Lowther in just 48 minutes to claim the Class 6A mixed doubles state championship Tuesday afternoon at Parham Bridges Tennis Center, 6-1, 6-0.

The state title was Figueroa’s second straight in the Mississippi High School Activities Association. As a singles player, Figueroa is ranked second in the Mississippi 18-and-under girls by the United States Tennis Association. She won last year’s Class 4A girls’ doubles title with her older sister, Catherine, who is now a student at Ole Miss.

“Well, I liked playing with my sister. But I had a lot of fun playing with Donald,” Figueroa said.

“It just clicked,” said Brown, who won his first state title after coming back to the game during his freshman year at Vicksburg.

Because of Figueroa’s ranking in the USTA, the pair was given a rare first-round bye into Tuesday’s semifinals. There they ripped Meridian’s Madison Gilette and Andrew Dayton 6-1, 6-1.

In the finals they got better, establishing themselves as arguably the best mixed doubles team in any class.

“The Madison team was a lot better. It just kind of took us awhile to get going in the first match with Meridian,” Figueroa said.

“Madison was better, but we played a lot better,” Brown added.

Bailey, who ended her first year as Vicksburg High’s coach after replacing long-time coach Kevin Manton, was proud of her champs.

“This is what we anticipated and they came through. They were excellent together. The net game, the service game, everything was on point,” Bailey said. “Madison Central had a good team, but Christine and Donald were just like a great tag team. I think this shows that tennis players in Vicksburg are starting to move into a different league.”

Brown said he dropped an early service game, but was smoking at the end. He hit three hard winners from the base line to finish off the match.

“At that point, I just wanted to get it over with,” Brown said. Brown will not play college tennis and instead will embark on an academic scholarship at Mississippi State. Figueroa has another season left.

“I’m going to be back at Vicksburg High,” she said, with a smile.

As singles players, both Figueroa and Brown were 14-2 on the season.

“The only two guys I lost to were Christian Branning of Northwest and Eric Prather of Clinton,” Brown said. Both Branning and Prather were in the boys singles draw.

In other 6A matches, Vicksburg’s No. 1 girls’ doubles team of Amanda Guizerix and Charlene Figueroa reached Tuesday’s semifinals, but fell to a team from Ocean Springs 6-1, 6-3. On Monday, Guizerix and Figueroa defeated Marian Wittman and Molly Maher of Gulfport 6-1, 6-3.

On Monday, Warren Central’s Shelby Clair Liddell and Lauren Pratt lost to Meridian’s Caroline Compton and Mimi Huff 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

And in boys No. 1 doubles, the Gator pair of Fritz Valerio and Perry Tolliver lost a three-setter to Oak Grove’s Zac Duncan and Evan Preham 6-4, 0-6, 7-5.