The North proved once again it had the better tennis players in the state of Mississippi. The Mississippi Association of Coaches held their annual all-star matches last week and it was a clean sweep for the schools north of Interstate 20.

The matches were held at Parham Bridges Tennis center in Jackson last Thursday.

Three Oxford Chargers graced the teams and Oxford’s Louis Nash coached both North teams along with Germantown’s Justin Adair. It was his fourth time to coach the all-star match.

The North boys defeated the South 4-3 largely due to the play of Oxford’s Bo Nash and Ryan Mounce. The duo won the No. 1 doubles match and followed it up with wins in the No. 1 and 3 singles matches.

“I’ve always enjoyed coaching that all-star thing,” Nash said. “To be with my three that has been so good for so long it was a lot of fun. I probably had the best 12 kids that I’ve ever been around.”

The match used the college format where three doubles matches go for one point then singles matches follow for the final six points.

Each team was comprised of six players from all across north Mississippi. Joining Nash and Mounce were New Albany’s Grayson Godbold, Pisgah’s Corey Jones, Northwest Rankin’s James McWilliams and St. Joseph’s Nick Zouboukos.

Oxford’s Grace Anne Jones anchored the girls’ North team on their way to a 5-2 win over the South. Jones won her No. 1 singles match as well as her doubles match with Madison Central’s Megan Humphreys.

Madison Peoples and Lana Taylor of Northwest Rankin along with Clinton’s Breana Norton and Winona’s Racheal Vanhorn rounded out the North squad.

“Grace Anne played with Madison Central’s best player. We were loaded,” Nash said. “It was just fun. Period. It was just a good time and they enjoyed it. Made it fun, made it pretty light-hearted but of course I started talking trash to the South just to keep things interesting.”