By Stephen Dawkins

Jemison’s boys tennis team on Thursday advanced to state for the seventh consecutive season, and missed winning the sectional by one 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.

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.