Manchester Academy’s two remaining girls double teams saw their seasons come to an end in similar fashions in the semi-finals at the MAIS AAA State Tournament on Wednesday.
The number one girls double team of Margaret Dent and Elizabeth Turner faced off with the #1 seed from the south region, Cathedral High School from Natchez.
Things got off to a rough start for Manchester’s duo when they dropped the first two games, but behind Turner’s serve and Dent’s net play, they won game three to make it a 1-2 match.
For each game won by one team, the other had a response until Manchester’s duo won a pair to tie things up at 5-5.
After winning their sixth game on a controversial double bounce that was questioned by Dent, Cathedral took the first set by a score of 7-5.
In set number two, Cathedral once again took the first game, but Manchester came back and tied it back up at 1-1 immediately after.
It was a heated battle in the 85+ degree weather on the court.
Each blow was felt and returned with equal force.
Manchester finally took a 4-3, its first lead of the entire match.
But chasing Cathedral all afternoon took its toll.
Cathedral rattled off three straight winning games to take the set 6-4, giving them the match victory.
A few moments after Turner and Dent began their match, Nettie Taylor Barbour and Mary Sibley McGraw, Manchester’s #2 doubles team, took the court for their semi-final match, also against Cathedral.
Barbour and McGraw quickly found themselves in a 0-3 hole in the first set.
The duo from Yazoo were fighters, however, and won back-to-back games to cut the deficit to 2-3.
After dropping one more game, Barbour and McGraw won four straight games to take the first set 6-4.
Barbour and McGraw found themselves in another precarious situation in set number two when they started 0-2, but unlike the first set, they could not string together enough wins. They dropped the set by a score of 4-6, creating a necessary third set.
In the final set, Barbour and McGraw finally got off to a hot start, winning the first game and going up 30-0 in the second game, but Cathedral fought back and took the game, one of the defining moments of the match.
The two teams traded games until it was 3-3, where Manchester’s opposition finally pulled ahead for good.
Cathedral won three straight games to take the final set 6-3, giving them the victory.
The bad news for Manchester is that their season came to a close rather unceremoniously.
The good news for the two doubles teams is that no one is graduating this year, so both should be in the running for that elusive state title one more time in 2017.
