Lakeside claims 5A-South tennis titles
Lakeside played in three of the four finals Tuesday afternoon in the 5A-South district tournament at Lakeside, winning in each of the three. The team also walked away with both girls’ and boys’ district titles.
“I was very impressed by the fight that they gave,” said Lakeside tennis coach Shawny Green. “The boys’ singles — they had a very close match the entire time. Haley Fauber, her fight to win that singles match, that was huge for her. Even the girls’
doubles was a pretty competitive match, so I’m very proud of the way they ended up. We really were questioning whether we would even win conference in boys or not, and they fought, and they figured out a way to win.”
Senior Blake Wooldridge faced teammate Ian Hollis in the boys’ singles final, falling, 4-6, in the first set after defeating Texarkana’s Nate Price, 6-0,
6-0, in the semifinal Tuesday morning. Hollis, who defeated Lake Hamilton’s Jacob Praetzel, 6-3, 6-1, in the other semifinal, hit a slump in the second set as Wooldridge claimed a 6-1 win to force a deciding third set.
“When I lost that first set, it kind of killed some confidence,” Wooldridge said. “I was kind of surprised.”
The final set saw the pairing trade points before Wooldridge held on following a 4-3 lead to take a 6-4 win.
“I think I played alright,” Wooldridge continued. “I think I got better gradually as the match went on. I started off kinda rough.”
Praetzel fell to fourth place with a
9-7 loss to Texarkana’s Nate Price in the third-place game.
The girls’ doubles final also saw Lakeside facing itself with the duo of senior Olivia Dolan and junior Mary Catherine Cowen downing juniors Isabella Calhoun and Marion Nutt, 6-3, 6-3. In both sets, Dolan and Cowen rolled to an early 3-0 lead before the pairings traded points.
“It feels good,” Dolan said of the win. “I’ve played for a while, so it’s a good achievement to have.”
“I was runner-up to Olivia and her partner (Haley Fauber) last year,” said Cowen, who paired with Calhoun last season. “I’m stepping it up and got with Olivia. It feels good.”
Lake Hamilton’s pairing of Reagan Hickam and Christian Harris fell, 9-7, to El Dorado’s Claire Van Sickle and Kendal Bonsall in the third-place match.
Fauber, a sophomore, defeated Benton’s Alex Trudell in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1, to claim her first 5A-South singles title.
“Honestly, I think I played pretty well,” Fauber said. “I went into it with a lot of confidence. Usually, I’m not a very confident person, so I was like, if I’m going to beat her, I’m going to have to have a lot of confidence.”
Fauber said she felt she had something to prove to her teammates as an underclassman.
“Coming in as a sophomore, I just really wanted to prove to the team that even though you have a sophomore as your No. 1, we can still do good things,” she said.
Lakeside’s Caroline Johnson defeated El Dorado’s Emma Thomas in the third-place match, 8-3.
Benton had two teams face off in the boys doubles match with seniors Mason Hart and Dawson Ramsay defeating classmates Henry Bethel and Will Guerra. Hart and Ramsay took the first set, 7-5, before falling to Bethel and Guerra in the second, 4-6. Hart and Ramsay held on to take a 6-2 win in the third set as the last match on the courts Tuesday.
Lake Hamilton’s Cole Plyler and Jace Robbins fell to El Dorado’s Gary Gauthier and Carson Ricker, 8-6, in the third-place match. Lakeside will host the Class 5A state tournament next Monday and Tuesday at the school and at Hot Springs Country Club starting at 10 a.m. each day.