Heide rides quick starts
Second-seeded Emily Heide of Mountain Home came through when she needed to in a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Vanessa Salinas of Haas Hall Fayetteville to advance to the semifinals of the state Overall tennis tournament Monday at Burns Park in North Little Rock.
Heide moves on to meet top-seeded Thea Rice of Hot Springs Lakeside at 10 a.m. today. Rice advanced with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Kristyn Tappana of Haas Hall Bentonville.
Heide, a sophomore for the Bombers, started each set quickly, taking a 3-0 lead in both, but she started to have a few problems after that.
“I don’t feel real good about the way I played today,” Heide said. “I made a lot of errors; I just played real sloppy.”
Salinas came back to win the next two games, breaking Heide in the fifth game of the first set, but she couldn’t keep the momentum going. Heide responded by breaking Salinas in the sixth game, and she later held serve to take the set.
In the second set, Heide overcame a double fault to win the third game, but another double in the fourth game resulted in Salinas breaking Heide.
Salinas held serve in the next game, narrowing Heide’s lead to 3-2. Heide won the next game, but the Haas Hall senior followed by holding serve, cutting Heide’s edge to 4-3.
Heide and Salinas traded easy victories on serve, but Heide used a shot to Salinas’ left to end the match.
Heide said she has never played Rice before, but “I’ve heard a lot of good things about her. She is real consistent.”
Mountain Home Coach David Moore said Heide needs “to be error-free tomorrow.” Heide agreed.
“I really have to be on my game,” she said.
Heide and Salinas had played each other once before Monday, with Heide winning that one as well.
In Monday’s other quarterfinals, Mary Houston of Fayetteville topped Olivia Gaston of Greenwood 6-2, 6-3, and Taylor Shaw of Little Rock Christian beat Kate Files of Fort Smith Northside 6-2, 6-1.