Overall tennis champions
Houston leads sweep by Fayetteville girls; Rogers takes boys title.
Fayetteville’s Mary Houston makes a return during her 7-6, 6-4 victory over Bentonville’s Lucia Canigova in the girls final at the Overall high school tennis tournament Tuesday at the Burns Park Tennis Complex in North Little Rock. Foster Rogers of Pulaski Academy won the boys final.
It’s 182.3 miles from Fayetteville High School to the Burns Park Tennis Complex in North Little Rock, or more than 360 miles for a round trip.
For Fayetteville’s opponents in the girls singles and doubles Overall final from Rogers and Bentonville, it’s just more of the same.
Fayetteville Coach Darren Phelan said as long as he can have players in the Overall finals, he doesn’t mind the trip, especially given Tuesday’s results.
Fayetteville junior Mary Houston defeated Bentonville senior Lucia Canigova for the third time in four meetings this season 7-6, 6-4 on Tuesday to earn the girls Overall title. The doubles team of senior Grace Coleman and junior Yasmine Humbert left with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory over sophomore Carolyn Long and senior Brittany Matthews of Rogers.
“I played well and had a good game today, and she did, too,” Houston said. “I had to move her a lot and had to hit high, heavy and deep.”
Houston admitted she had too many unforced errors but couldn’t complain. Phelan agreed.
“She played real gutsy today, that’s the biggest thing,” Phelan said. “The match got real tight, and I saw Mary step up with confidence today. That’s the biggest thing I saw. She had a few unforced errors, but she managed to overcome.”
Neither player was ahead more than one game through most of the second set. It was tied at 4-4 when Houston started to control things.
“A big part of it is trusting what she’s capable of doing, then going out there and executing,” Phelan said. “That’s what she did in a nutshell.”
Houston started relying on her forehand at that point, the part of her game she says is the strongest.
“Growing up I played with a lot of guys, so now people say I have a forehand like a guy, a lot of spin and high and hard,” she said.
Houston, who has won the title in the state’s highest classification the past two years, advanced to the semifinals of the Overall last year but lost in straight sets to Taylor Shaw of Little Rock Christian. In 2019, she has the opportunity to win the state title for three consecutive years and then try for a second consecutive Overall title.
“My game has been pretty consistent the last two weeks,” she said. “I just stuck to my game plan and everything worked out all right.”
Phelan agreed with that assessment and said it was pretty much like that for the battles between Canigova and Houston this year.
“They’ve played four times this year,” he said. “In the state match [won by Houston 6-0, 6-1], Lucia had dead legs, so we won’t count that, but everything else has been very tight.”