On April 18, 10 tennis teams from Mississippi’s Junior and Community Colleges converged on the Perkinston campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast to kick off the 2017 Region XXIII/MACJC State Tennis tournament. On the men’s side, Meridian’s men were the favorite to win, as the team was 16-0 in conference play on the season.  

On the final day when the points were tallied, Meridian’s men took the championship with 28 points for the four-day tournament. The Gulf Coast men were second with 22 points, while Jones County Junior College finished third with 17 points. 

The top three teams will advance to the NJCAA National Tennis Tournament, scheduled to be played at Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas, May 15-19. Other teams competing were fourth-place Itawamba CC with 14 points, fifth-place Copiah-Lincoln and East Central with 12 points, seventh-place Hind with seven points. Northwest had three points, Holmes had two points and Northeast had one.

Meridian’s men saw no action on Wednesday’s opening rounds as they all had seeds. Mississippi’s top player, Jason Pimenta of MCC, who has gone 32-0 in two seasons at MCC in competition with other MACJC schools, came in as the top seed. On the second day of play, Pimenta defeated Hinds’ Daniel Yepez 1,1. In the semifinals, Pimenta defeated JCJC’s Taqel Lewis 0,1. In the finals, Pimenta fell to Travis Bell, whom he had defeated twice during regular-season play, in two sets.

At No. 2, singles Breno Goncalves went down in the semifinals Wednesday in what was perhaps one of the hardest-fought matches in the tournament. Goncalves and his opponent, Juan Pablo Panilla (Co-Lin), both became victims of muscle cramps due to the long match and heat. Pinalla pulled out the win in a second se tiebreak. Goncalves defeated John Teague Murphy of MGCCC in a long three-set match on Thursday, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0. The two flight was won by Diego Lea (JCJC). Meridian’s three, Will Swindoll, picked up two points on Thursday with a win over Joseph Jabour of ECCC 2,2. Swindoll fell to Dalton Young of NWMCC in the semifinals 3, 2. Chase Pennington (JCJC) won the third flight by defeating Young in the finals. 

Meridian’s Callan Shinall had a great tournament. Callan was the No. 1 seed and faced Tripp Case (Co-Lin) in the quarterfinals and took a 4,4 victory. In the semifinals, Shinall won a three-set match against Jacob Bozeman (JCJC) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. In the finals, Callan defeated Noah Rowell of Gulf Coast to claim the flight 4 championship. At five singles, Noah James, the two-seed, defeated Brandon Rogers from ECCC 6-2, 1-6, 7-5. In the semifinals, Noah again went three sets to defeat ICC’s Roberto Valadez 6-1, 2-6, 6-3. James lost in the finals to Reid Cudd from MGCCC.

Meridian pulled another championship spot at No. 6. Will Irvin, who won his five flight in 2016, repeated a win this year at No. 6. Irvin, the No. 1 seed, defeated Rylee Artman from Holmes on Thursday 0,2. In the semifinals, Irvin defeated MGCCC’s Brett Bowen 1,0. Irvin won the finals by defeating Michael Crotts from ICC. In doubles, Meridian walked away at No. 1 and 2 doubles. The three doubles for Meridian, John Taylor Champion and Noah James, fell to MGCCC’s Bowen/Cudd in the semifinals.

They defeated Walden/Lindsey of Northeast to get to the semifinals. The MCC duo of Will Swindoll/Jason Pimenta fought their way into the finals with a win in the quarterfinals over ICC’s Blizzard/Garcia-Perez 0,1. They then played Travis Bell/John Teague Murphy in the semifinals, where they collected the win to play Co-Lin’s Osorio/Pinilla in the finals. They took a three-set victory to claim the one doubles championship. Meridian’s No. 2 doubles, Goncalves/Shinall, defeated Alderman/Case of Co-Lin 3,4 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals Friday, MCC defeated ICC’s Jobe/Shands to advance to the finals. In the finals, they defeated ECCC’s Stewart/Jiminez to claim the two doubles championship.   

Coach McPhail, riding the great play of her team, was named the men’s Region XXIII Coach of the Year. She was elected by her fellow coaches as the MACJC men’s Coach of the Year for the second year.