The Mathews High School girls’ tennis team earned a trip to the VHSL state tournament on Friday following last Thursday’s 5-2 victory over the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Region A title.

Mathews will face Region B champion Wilson Memorial at 9 a.m. Friday in the semifinals at Radford University. If Mathews wins, the team will advance to the Saturday morning state title match against either the Region C champs from Radford or Gate City, the Region D champions.

In last Thursday’s battle with Appomattox, the teams competed at the Howard D. Mast Tennis Center in Suffolk in 90 degree plus heat, with the heat index over 100 on the courts.

At number one, Aly Collins came out strong winning the first set 6-3 over Aly Netz, but then lost a tough second set, 6-4. Each point consisted of long rallies of at least 20 balls hit back and forth. During the 10-minute break between the split sets, Aly Collins was suffering from heat exhaustion and the co...