NATCHEZ — Winning a 36-game tennis match 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 in the MAIS AAA state championship is exhausting enough, but Cathedral High School No. 2 girls doubles pair Emma Hogue and Marty Lewis were also not at full strength.

Lewis had been playing the entire 2016 tennis season with an Osteochondritis dissecans fracture in her right knee. She also had ankle surgery in September to repair a similar injury.

But Lewis and Hogue knew they had just one match to go to earn their first state championship plaques against St. Aloysius’ No. 2 doubles pair, Ashley Jarette and Taylor Chewning.

“I just wanted to make it through the season,” Lewis said. “We went to the doctor about three weeks before the state championship, and he told me I needed it immediately, but I couldn’t ditch Emma.”

Lewis and Hogue said the injury didn’t change the way the Green Wave duo covered the court. Both players still alternated their opponents’ service games at the net and on the baseline.

“It didn’t stop her from getting to balls,” Cathedral coach Beth Foster said. “You thought it would, but she ran just as far.”

Hogue and Lewis were playing the state finals match after playing three sets in the semifinals match which they won 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

“It kind of hurt, but I fought through it,” Lewis said.

Lewis and Hogue fought back from behind in all three sets. The Green Wave pair was down 5-2 in the first and second sets, and they managed to win the first set while forcing 12 games in the second set.

Finally, the two juniors clawed back in the third set to win their first state title and Cathedral’s first MAIS tennis title.

“I thought we were done in the third set,” Lewis said. “We felt like we didn’t have to hold back on shots, because whether they were out or not, we had to make up ground.”

Hogue and Lewis said they and her teammate didn’t expect St. Al to compete so fiercely — Chewning and Jarette are both seventh graders. They said their matches prior to district play hadn’t been as competitive and the skill level of their opponents increased dramatically through district and South State.

Hogue and Lewis said they were also still getting in sync, since this was the first season they had played together.

“The last four games of the season were pretty much the only games we had together (before district),” Lewis said.

The seemingly unlikely pair pulled through. Hogue and Lewis said there was no Wimbledon-esque celebration afterward — they didn’t fall to the court in exhaustion or hold their plaques up to a roaring crowd — dinner at Bonefish Grill was celebratory enough.

“We were so tired,” Hogue said. “We wanted it really bad.”

Lewis had knee surgery on the following day at Baptist Hospital in Madison. Lewis is currently on crutches and wears a knee brace, but said she will be able to walk freely in approximately one month and play tennis again in approximately two months.

Foster said Hogue and Lewis had the advantage of confidence.

“They always walked onto the court very confidently,” Foster said. “It didn’t look like they worried at all.”