St. Al sends nine to MAIS South State tennis tournament

Published 11:24 am Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Doubles was no trouble for St. Aloysius’ tennis team.

St. Al’s No. 2 boys’ doubles team of Walker Lambiotte and James Powell finished first, and three other doubles teams were runners-up in the MAIS District 3-5A tournament Tuesday at Halls Ferry Park.

Noah Taylor and Ryan Davidson finished second in No. 1 boys’ doubles. The girls’ doubles teams of Ali Blackburn and Carrie Woods, and Sarah Beth Johnston and Olivia Larsen also were second in the No. 1 and No. 2 divisions, respectively.

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Walker Moore also finished second in No. 2 boys singles.

All four doubles teams, as well as Moore, advanced to the Class 5A South State tournament April 18 at Halls Ferry Park.

Lambiotte and Powell had a first-round bye in the No. 2 boys’ doubles division, and then rolled through two matches to win the district title.

They beat Cathedral’s Logan Ellis and Joseph Misita 6-0, 6-3 in the semifinals, and Madison-St. Joseph’s David Dear and Walt Williams 6-0, 6-1 in the championship match.

In No. 1 boys’ doubles, Taylor and Davidson also had a first-round bye and then beat Central Hinds’ Matthew Bradshaw and Luke Barlow 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals. Taylor and Davidson lost two close sets to St. Joe’s Derek Starlin and Johnathan Warnock in the finals, however, 7-5, 7-6.

Blackburn and Woods cruised past Copiah Academy’s Abby Wood and Emma Thompson 6-1, 6-0 in the semifinals, but couldn’t get by Cathedral’s Natalie Smith and Lacy Welch in the finals and lost 6-2, 6-4 in No. 1 girls’ doubles.

The No. 2 doubles team of Johnston and Larsen also lost to a Cathedral tandem, Graci Gamberi and Bella Milligan, 6-2, 6-0 in the championship round. The St. Al duo defeated Central Hinds’ Payton Townsend and Brooke Smith 6-1, 6-4 in the semifinals.

St. Al’s singles players had mixed results. Julia Tuminello and and Hendrix Eldridge both easily won their opening-round matches, and then lost in the second round.

Tuminello fell 6-1, 6-1 to St. Joe’s Adriana Terrazas in No. 1 singles. Eldridge lost 6-4, 7-5 to St. Joe’s Caelyn Funches in the No. 2 bracket.

In the boys’ singles brackets, Moore had a first-round bye in the No. 2 bracket and beat Central Hinds’ Owen Smith 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals. Moore’s run ended in the championship match with a 6-0, 6-0 loss to St. Joe’s Will Manhein.

In the No. 1 boys’ singles bracket, St. Al’s Caleb Stewart beat Copiah’s Adian Smith 6-1, 6-0 and then ran into a buzzsaw in the semifinals. Cathedral’s Alex Monogan, one of the state’s top players, beat Stewart 6-0, 6-0.
Monogan did not drop a game in two matches on his way to the district title.

St. Al’s mixed doubles team of Laiken Larson and Carter Smithhart also went 1-1 in the tournament. They beat Adams County Christian School’s Ava and Maddox McDonald 6-2, 6-2 in the first round and then lost a third-set tiebreaker to St. Joe’s Anna Williams and Noah Ingram 6-3, 4-6, (8).

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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