Jags impress at state tennis tournament, place 2nd

Spain Park High School girls tennis coach Amber Lewis called it a historical day.

She’s right.

The Jags tennis team advanced to the state tournament for the first time in school history, and instead of wilting under the hot sun and grinding pressure, they persevered and came away with a trophy to show for their efforts.

Spain Park finished runner-up to Mountain Brook in the Class 7A state tournament April 24-25 at Montgomery’s Lagoon Park, sending the school home with a red map in its initial showing on the state’s biggest stage.

The Jags accumulated four state championships out of nine possible and racked up 35 points. Mountain Brook won with 45 points, and Fairhope finished third with 23 points.

Although it was the first time for the team to make it to state, sisters Daryn and Sydney Ellison had experience at the state tournament, having won it all as a doubles pair in 2016. They made that back-to-back state championship trophies, as the duo won the No. 1 doubles title again.

Daryn Ellison competed in the No. 1 singles bracket for the third time in the last four years but ran up against a tough matchup in the first round and fell in three sets to Sydney Flesch of Huntsville, an eventual finalist.

Spain Park racked up three singles championships, as Lindsay Song (No. 2), Sydney Ellison (No. 3) and Mychelle Widra (No. 4) won their respective brackets.

Song didn’t lose a set on the way to her singles title and only lost two games overall, both in the first set of the final. She swept Auburn’s Sarah Northcutt 6-0, 6-0, and did the same to Lindsey Zerbinos of Enterprise. Mountain Brook’s Sarah Cooper took two games in the first set of the final, but Song blanked her in the second set to win 6-2, 6-0.

Sydney Ellison beat Enterprise’s Ella Sawyer 6-0, 6-0, in the first round of No. 3 singles, but Mountain Brook’s Ellie Polk gave her a stiff challenge in the semifinals. Polk won the first set 7-5 before Sydney Ellison rallied to win the final two sets by identical 6-2 scores to win the match.

Widra beat Hewitt-Trussville’s Blakely Valdez in three sets and took down Fairhope’s Emily Adams in straights to advance to the final.

Song and Riley Ford put together a great season as a No. 2 doubles pair and made it to the finals, where Mountain Brook’s Cele Sullivan and Sarah Cooper won in three sets.

Hannah Luther was a semifinalist in No. 5 singles and part of the No. 3 doubles tandem with Widra, while Ford competed for the Jags at No. 6 singles.

Of how her kids handled the state tournament, Lewis was largely pleased with how they responded to the moment.

“Nerves do play a role in it,” she said. “As much as you try to settle them down, they’ve never been there. Overall, they played spectacular. I’m a happy coach.”

Lewis recalled a moment with Widra that stood out. Widra was playing in the No. 4 singles final, and she split the first two sets with McGill-Toolen’s Sage Ellis. During her conversation with Widra before the final set, Lewis wanted her athlete to understand the magnitude of the moment.

“This is an extra special moment,” Lewis told Widra. “Take it in. Soak in the moment. I want you to really understand what this is. I want you to revel in it a little bit. If you come out with a win, you’re a state champion. That’s nothing to be taken lightly. That’s an accomplishment.”

Widra took that advice and ran with it, and dominated the third set, shutting out her opponent 6-0 to win the state championship. 

“I swell with pride,” Lewis said. “It’s just a proud moment for these kids. I love seeing them accomplish what they’ve tried so hard to accomplish. It means a lot.”

Spain Park took the bull by the horns in its first trip to the state tournament. The individual state champions will go on the “Wall of Champions” at the high school. The team will come home with a red trophy that will be displayed for all to see. 

The 2017 tennis team has set the bar for Lewis and her program moving forward. Goals have been realized, and it is now in the hands of future teams to take it one step further.

“With Spain Park being on the board as a state runner-up, they have some accomplishments,” Lewis said.

The athletes rising through the program now have tangible evidence of what’s possible in the Jags’ tennis program.

“A lot of our younger kids are going to see that,” Lewis said. “We have a young group that’s a little bit larger, and this year they have had that experience and those memories and that exposure. They get to set that bar for upcoming kids in the years to come. They’re not all leaving, and we’ve got to start over. We’ve got the camaraderie and chemistry, all of that.”