Jemison’s boys tennis team on Thursday advanced to state for the seventh consecutive season, and Chilton County barely missed qualifying for the second straight year.

Both teams’ sectional results came down to the last match.

Jemison’s No. 1 doubles team, Brandon Jones and Cole Thompson, fell to their St. James counterparts in a match that, if it had turned out differently, would have given Jemison the sectional championship.

But Jones and Thompson were already playing above their heads: they finished second in Class 4A, Section 2 after coming in as the No. 4 seed.

“Cole and Brandon played the match of their lives,” Jemison coach Benton Morton said.

Jemison wound up finishing behind St. James, 53-48, in the tournament played at the O’Connor Tennis Center in Montgomery.

Jordan Jones and Drew Posey, meanwhile, won the No. 2 doubles championship, and Jake Long and Andrew Morton won the No. 3 doubles position.

Long and Morton also won the No. 5 and 6 singles spots, respectively.

Long and Morton are now a combined 54-0 in regular season and sectional matches over the past two seasons. They are 26-1 in doubles matches, with the loss being a default against St. James in the 2009 sectional—a loss they avenged on Thursday.

Chilton County finished two points behind Demopolis, 24-22, for second place in the Class 5A, Section 5 tournament at Walker.

The top two teams from each section advance to the state tournament.

Michael Elder, at No. 1 singles; Nicholas Lyn, at No. 3 singles; and Rett Russell, at No. 5 singles, all finished second in the section.