Tennis semifinals

Rogers duo remain undefeated with win over Fayetteville.

SPRINGDALE — The Rogers High tandem of Jenna Bohnert and Grace Lueders admitted to feeling a few nerves prior to their Class 6A state quarterfinal match on Mondy afternoon at the Wildcat Tennis Center on the campus of Springdale Har-Ber.

But it was sure hard to tell. They took only 45 minutes to crush Fayetteville’s Caroline Stewart and Avery Weilert 6-0, 6-0 to remain undefeated and advance to today’s girls’ double semifinals.

The sophomore duo will take on Jessica Hood and Ananya Vangoor of Bentonville West in a rematch of the 6A-West Conference semifinals two weeks ago, which the Rogers team won 6-1, 6-0.

“Always when they call you, it’s like butterflies in your stomach,” said Lueders, who didn’t play for the high school team a year ago. “But after that …”

“… just play,” Bohnert interjected.

Rogers coach Matthew Fulton said that’s exactly what they did.

“With a No. 1 seed you expect them to compete at the highest lev- el and they didn’t have any hiccups today,” Fulton said. “It was pretty uneventful.”

Fulton said they are both good singles players, who are learning to play together as a doubles team this year.

“To make them into a doubles team is a lot more difficult,” Fulton said. “But they learned how to be good communicators with one another and trust one another. That really helps when they play.”

Both players said learning to play together was not easy.

“I feel like I’m really solid at the net and I just learned how to move with Grace very well,” said Bohnert, who finished fourth in the 6A singles draw last season. “It’s just like a whole other ballgame. It’s completely different from singles. You don’t have someone to cover you and you don’t have someone you have to communicate with.”

Springdale Har-Ber’s doubles team of Conor Clardy and Hayden Swope have a little more experience together, but also have their eye on a state title.

Clardy and Swope, who finished fourth in the state a year ago, also stayed undefeated and cruised into today’s semifinals with a 6-3, 6-1 win over the Little Rock Catholic team of Harrison Cook and Collier Allison.

The Har-Ber team also admitted to feeling a little nervous playing in front of a home crowd of friends

and family. But advanced rather easily.

“We just had to get used to it,” Clardy said. “We had a bunch of our friends out that played a part in it. But we got rolling and didn’t look back I guess.

“Having the support helps,” Swope said. “It helps me clear my mind and knowing people are on my side helped me play better as I went along.”

Har-Ber coach Rick Horne said the two have grown together with a second season under their belts.

“They are thinking alike,” Horne

said. “They are on auto-mode. It’s just meshing and they’re doing that.”

Bentonville West’s Hayden Shoemake, last year’s state runner-up in boys’ singles, had an easy time with a 6-1, 6-0 quarterfinal win over Little Rock Catholic’s Jonathan Hart.

Both Little Rock Central’s boys’ doubles teams advanced to the semifinals.

Central’s Phil Abston and Zandy Djurica, who finished as state runner-up a year ago, had to rally to advance to the semifinals. Abston and Djurica survived a quadruple

match point in the third set and rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the tiebreaker to edge Nick Fulton and Cooper Gommel of Rogers High 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 (7-4).

In girls’ singles, Bentonville’s Ella Coleman, a freshman and the 6A-West conference champion, and Fort Smith Northside’s Kate Files each breezed in their quarterfinal matches. The two will meet in today’s semifinal. Files finished third last year and was a state runner-up as a freshman.