The Pillow Academy boys tennis team will attempt to win its third straight State AAAA Division II championship this week.
If successful, this may be the end of a highly successful run that has produced four state championships in the last six years.
The end of the championship era could partly be due to the ensuing graduation of Mustang senior Brady McDaniel, the top-ranked junior player in the state.
McDaniel and junior Sunjay Chawla are overwhelming favorites to repeat as four-time state singles champions. Both hold an 84-7 game record for the year as both have gone 7-0 in singles play.
“It will be a long time before we get someone of Brady’s tennis caliber again,” Pillow interim tennis coach Chuck Brown said. “When I first moved here and saw him play, I realized that he’s one of those special talents that you just enjoy watching.”
Both McDaniel and Chawla have been starters on those previous three state championship varsity teams since 2013. They enter the state championship tournament as clear cut No. 1 seeds. The previous three years they have entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed, and neither has lost a set. In fact, neither has lost more than two games in one set.
Yet in order for the Pillow squad to win the overall championship, they will have to pull an upset at No. 1 or No. 2 boys doubles over top-ranked Washington School. The Mustang duo of senior Smith Lyon and junior Cole Tyler have each been part of a No. 2 boys doubles championship in 2016 and 2017. They will pair together at No. 1 doubles and will be a No. 2 seed. Last week, Tyler and Lyon lost a heartbreaking 5-7 7-5 (6-10) match to Washington’s John Martin Walker and John Bentley Suares.
“I really think that Cole and Smith’s comeback win over Jackson Academy earlier this week might give them the edge to beat Washington this week,” Brown said.
The duo lost the first nine games versus the Raiders last week before storming back and pulling off an improbable comeback.
If Pillow can’t defeat Washington at No. 1 boys doubles, it will have to hope for a victory by the No. 2 boys doubles team of junior Floyd Melton IV and senior Jeff Jackson. The task will be daunting, as the duo has struggled mightily against top-ranked Washington both matches they have played them this year.
Washington’s Farrell Hathaway and Conner Janous have won 24 out of 26 games against Pillow.
Quarterfinal and semifinal matches will be played on Wednesday afternoon at the Ridgeland Tennis Center. Then final matches will be played at 9 a.m. Thursday.
