Bishop McGuinness and Mount Airy took home state titles at the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A girls tennis state championships at the Cary Tennis Center on Saturday.

Lucia Neves became the first Bishop McGuinness girls tennis player to win a singles title since Morgan Auger in 2014. Neves beat Sasha Korjova of Triangle Math & Science 6-4, 6-4 in the championship match.

Neves had a dominant performance on Friday, beating Rosewood’s Karolina Pittman 6-0, 6-0 and Manya Nallagangu of N.C. Science of Math-Morganton 6-2, 6-0. Neves lost just two games in the first two rounds of the tournament.

Beating Korjova was no small feat. Last year, Korjova teamed up with Brianna Viets to win the 1A doubles state championship for Triangle Math & Science. Korjova beat Mount Airy’s Lynn Meadows (6-1, 6-1) and Highland Tech’s Madison Darnell (6-1, 6-2) to advance to the singles championship.

With Neves’ win, Bisohp McGuinness has now won three singles state titles.

Mount Airy’s doubles team of Carrie Marion and Audrey Brown claimed the 1A doubles title with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Ava Darnell and Emerson Simmons of East Wilkes.

Marion and Brown dropped just one set en route to winning the title. The duo beat Eliza Jones and Valeria Gonzalez of Southside (6-0, 6-0) and NCSSM-Morganton’s Ananya Sriram and Will Levine (6-0, 3-6, 6-0).

Marion has won three individual state championships for Mount Airy. She won the singles title in 2022 and teamed up with Ella Bryant to win the doubles title in 2021. Marion and Bryant were the doubles runner-up last season.

Mount Airy has now won five doubles state championships as a program.

Source: highschoolot.com