St. Al pair wins Class 1A crown
Published 11:35 am Wednesday, May 9, 2012
CLINTON — One of the few losses Steven Cialone and Michael Foley have suffered this season was to the team standing behind the opposite side of the net Tuesday at the Class 1A Tennis Tournament at Mississippi College.
This time, Cialone and Foley were on top of their games. The St. Aloysius boys doubles team ripped off four straight games, including a pair of break points, to thrash University Christian’s Kevin Millet and T.J. Carter 6-3, 6-2 to claim their second straight boys doubles state championship. Now, the St. Al pair can eye a bigger prize — a team championship.
Cialone and Foley will play a big part in St. Al’s state team title match today against defending 1A champ Sacred Heart at Millsaps College. Sacred Heart had a big day, winning three divisions, including two against players from St. Al.
Cialone, a junior, said he’s ready for the challenge.
“Like coach (Rick) Shields said last week, this is our best team we’ve put against them,” Cialone said. “We might have to switch some things around with our lineup.”
Shields and his Flashes (11-2) will have to steer around Sacred Heart’s two dominant boys, Carter Andrews and Chris Wilkins. Wilkins slammed St. Al’s Austin Mathis in the 1A boys final, 6-2, 6-0. Andrews and partner Mary Inger beat St. Al’s Alexa Baldizon and Aaron Mathis 6-4, 6-0 in the mixed doubles finals.
“Sacred Heart is really tough with Carter Andrews and Chris Wilkins,” Shields said. “Wilkins is very consistent. Austin tried to play a different style and it didn’t work.”
Andrews said his Crusader team, which beat St. Al 5-2 last year at South State, is confident.
For Cialone and Foley, the task at hand Tuesday was revenge. The University Christian pair had beaten them in the division tournament in Greenville.
“We had beaten them earlier in the year, but in the division tournament, they switched up with a new guy and we didn’t have a good day,” Cialone said. “We figured it out by taking it to the weaker guy.”
Tied at 2 in the second set, Foley ran down a winner at the net to clinch a key break point. Foley followed by holding serve for a 4-2 lead.
In the seventh game, Cialone striped a baseline return for the shot of the match. It was followed by two unforced errors to give St. Al a second broken-service game. Cialone served out the match.
“It was real comforting to be able to serve out the last game,” Cialone said. “As for that baseline shot, I felt I had to take that chance. When we played them at district, all the games were real close and we lost in three sets. We wanted to come back and prove something.”
Foley agreed.
“We knew we’d see them in the finals,” he said. “This time, we attacked a lot more.”
Rain wreaked havoc in Monday’s first two rounds. Austin Mathis wasn’t fazed by a near five-hour delay and won both of his matches to reach the 1A singles finals. Baldizon and Aaron Mathis did the same, but needed three sets to beat University Christian 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 in a semifinal match that ended just after 11 p.m.
In other 1A matches for St. Al, Kori Vessell lost in girls singles to Tupelo Chrstian’s Ann Margaret Milan 6-3, 6-3, and the girls doubles team of Ashleigh Piazza and Jean Marie Mabry fell in the second round to Cathderal 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).
Class 6A Tournament
At Parham Bridges in Jackson, Warren Central’s mixed doubles team of Jalen Dagher and Elizabeth Wooten won a first-round match against Petal, but then lost in the second round to Ocean Springs’ Andrew Risley and Tori Calcote. The Vikings had three entrants go out in the first round. Parin Bhitka lost to Tupelo’s Drew Ballard 6-2, 6-1. Ashley Porter lost in girls singles while the boys doubles team of Robert Rhett and Jesse Tillotson lost to Northwest Rankin’s Carter Black and Calder Cherry 7-5, 7-5.