CARY —  Mount Airy High School players earned a spot in the singles championship and one in the doubles after Friday’s opening day of play in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association state 1-A women’s tennis tournament championships at the Cary Tennis Center.

Jordan Jackson of Mount Airy, last year’s singles runner-up, lost only two games in four sets and will take on Alice Huang of Durham’s North Carolina School of Science and Math for the singles title. Both won their respective regionals last week.

Mount Airy actually qualified four entries into the semifinals, two in singles and two in doubles. The Mount Airy doubles team of Elizabeth Dinkins and Jade Hughes will play East Montgomery’s Delana Hinson and Samantha Kellis for the doubles championship.

Hinson and Kellis finished second in last year’s state tournament.

There were a couple of upsets in doubles play. Hinson and Kellis outlasted Western Regional champs Davi Barbour and Haley Thomas of Mount Airy in a grueling three-set match, the only split set match of the opening day, that lasted two and a half hours. The East Montgomery team prevailed 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

The Eastern doubles champions, Janice Wong and Anna Page of NCSSM, lost in the quarterfinals to the Elkin pair of Kaylee Brown and Ashlyn Reece. Then Dinkins and Hughes of Mount Airy beat Brown and Reece 6-2, 6-4, rallying from 1-4 down in the second set.

The doubles final will begin upon conclusion of the singles championship, which starts at nine o’clock Saturday morning. If there is inclement weather, the matches are scheduled to move indoors at North Carolina State University and start at 8:30 am. 

Jordan Jackson (Mount Airy) def. Kinsey Blount (Durham Voyager Academy) 6-0,6-0; Merry Kessler (Mount Airy) def. Krissy O’Brien (Lejeune) 6-3, 6-3; Alice Huang (NC School of Science and Math) def. Megan Hedgepath (Misenheimer Gray Stone Day) 6-1, 6-2; Jessica Rumple (East Wilkes) def. Shannon Powers (Raleigh Charter) 6-0, 6-1.

Singles–Semifinals

Jackson (Mount Airy) def. Kessler (Mount Airy) 6-1, 6-1; Huang (NCCSM) def. Rumple (East Wilkes) 6-1, 6-2.

Singles–Championship

Jordan Jackson (Mount Airy) vs. Alice Huang (NC School of Science and Math)

Doubles–Quarterfinals

Davi Barbour-Haley Thomas (Mount Airy) def. Autumn Shields-Ashley Spivey (Saxapahaw River Mill Academy) 6-0, 6-1; Delana Hinson-Samantha Kellis (East Montgomery) def. Sarah Parsons-Abigail Armstrong  (NC School of Science and Math) 6-4, 6-2; Kaylee Brown-Ashlyn Reece (Elkin) def.Janice Wong-Anna Page (NC School of Science and Math) 6-3, 6-4; Elizabeth Dinkins-Jade Hughes (Mount Airy) def. Kellun Edwards-Carson Peele (Riverside-Martin) 6-1, 6-1. 

Doubles–Semifinals

Hinson-Kellis (East Montgomery) def. Barbour-Thomas (Mount Airy) 5-7, 6-3, 6-4; Dinkins-Hughes (Mount Airy) def. Brown-Reece (Elkin) 6-2 6-4.

Doubles–Championship

Delana Hinson-Samantha Kellis (East Montgomery) vs, Elizabeth Dinkins-Jade Hughes (Mount Airy)