For those lucky enough to make it to the final matches, Tuesday was a long, grueling day of tennis. Originally set to take place over two days, the Northwest 1A/2A Conference tennis tournament was shortened to just one evening due to the fear of inclement weather later in the week.

The top three finishers from each of the four divisions (1A/2A singles, 1A/2A doubles) earned spots in the regional tournament later this month and of those 12 spots, Surry County schools were well represented, taking home seven.

Mount Airy placed Jordan Jackson, along with the doubles team of Ellie Case and Jordan Gwyn, while East Surry placed Megan Shelton and Marcie Matthews in singles play. In the 2A draw, Surry Central sent Tara Dockery, Taylor Casey and the doubles team of Hunter Marion and Kayla Feeney.

Just as they had during their two previous meetings in regular season play, Shelton and Jackson had an epic 1A singles final match, with Shelton taking the title 6-4, 6-3.

Mount Airy coach Scott Kniskern said the Shelton-Jackson matchup is always a heated one.

“They play really long points and every game can go either way,” he said. “It’s just that it seems Megan usually ends up on the winning side. The points are always tight and the matches are always pretty close.”

Shelton advanced to the final by defeating Mount Airy’s Alex Rigney 6-1, 6-0 and Katy Jones of Bishop McGuinness 6-0, 6-1.

Jackson defeated Millie Norman of North Stokes 6-2, 6-0 and Marcie Matthews of East Surry 6-1, 6-2 to set up the showdown with Shelton.

Matthews bounced back from her loss to Jackson to defeat Bishop’s Jones in the 1A singles consolation match, 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the regional.

Mount Airy’s Case and Gwyn fell just short in the 1A doubles final, losing a hard fought match to the team of Elizabeth Davis and Emily Cirano of Bishop McGuinness 6-1, 6-4.

Case and Gwyn defeated Curnes and Kennedy of Bishop 6-2, 6-0 and Jordan Wilkins and Taylor York of North Stokes 6-3, 6-3.

Wilkins and York went on to win the doubles consolation game to advance to regionals.

On the 2A side, Surry Central took half of the 2A regional births.

Tara Dockery defeated teammate Taylor Casey 6-1, 6-1 in the 2A singles final, while the team of Hunter Marion and Kayla Feeney won the 2A doubles title.

Dockery defeated Chantel Davis of North Surry 6-0, 6-0 and Katie Miller of South Stokes 6-1, 6-0 to advance to the final, while Casey had a much tougher road.

She defeated McKayla Newsome of West Stokes 6-1, 6-3 in the first round before being forced to fight back from a 4-6 first set loss to South Stokes’ Chelsea Evans. Casey rallied and took the second set 6-3 before holding off Evans 11-9 in the third set tiebreaker.

Marion and Feeney defeated Burroughs and Sands of South Stokes 6-3, 6-3 in the 2A doubles final.

The regional competition will begin next Friday, with the 1A draw held at East Montgomery in Biscoe and the 2A draw in Salisbury.