TOURNAMENT PLAY
Lakeside freshman Ben Hollis returns a volley against Lake Hamilton freshman Peter Bobnar during the semifinals of the 5A South conference tournament at Lakeside on Wednesday.
the start of the finals and the third-place games, everyone knew which team had claimed the 5A South conference title. All one had to do was look at who was playing in the finals.
Lakeside swept all eight semifinals, leaving teammates facing off against each other in the finals of the tournament as players from Hot Springs, Lake Hamilton, El Dorado and Texarkana each played for seeding for next week’s Class 5A State Tournament, which will be hosted by Lakeside.
Lakeside coach Shawny Green was a bit surprised to see Lakeside sweep all eight semifinals.
“Today I was not expecting an all-Lakeside final, so it was kind of awesome to see that happen because I didn’t think that was gonna happen at all,” she said. “And it did. So it was great.”
Leading the Rams in the semifinals was freshman Ben Hollis, who faced off against Lake Hamilton freshman Peter Bobnar for a 6-2, 6-0 win.
Bobnar picked up the first game easily as he did not allow Hollis to score a single point, but Hollis responded by taking four straight games to power out to a 4-1 lead. Hollis served for the next set as the players each traded points before Hollis sent a long shot across to the far end of the court, but it landed just outside for Bobnar to pull within 4-2.
The next set saw several long rallies with the pair trading points before Bobnar put the ball into the net to put Hollis within a game of taking the set. Hollis put the ball into the net after a short back-and-forth affair in the front court before keeping Bobnar scoreless for the remainder of the game for the win.
Bobnar struggled to pick up points in the second set as Hollis cruised to a 6-0 win to advance to face classmate William Ivy. In the other boys singles semifinal, Ivy lost his first set to Texarkana’s Nate Price and was down 5-2 before winning seven straight games to force a third set, which he won 6-3.
Hollis went on to defeat his teammate in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0, to take the top seed for next week’s state tournament, and Price defeated Bobnar, 8-1, to take third.
“I knew that Lakeside is really good, so I was kind of expecting it,” Hollis said of facing off against Ivy, who had just 30 minutes of rest between his semifinal and final. “I feel like he was OK because he started a little bit earlier than he had to.”
Green was pleased with the way her team played.
“All my kids exceeded my expectations,” she said. “The boys had some really tough competition, and they won some matches that maybe they weren’t expected to win. They’ve worked all season, and they’ve continually gotten better. And they won when it mattered the most, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.
“They’re all freshmen except for one. And so they made a statement today, and I thought they did extremely well.”
Junior Haley Fauber had a strong showing in her semifinal against El Dorado’s Emma Thomas, struggling somewhat in the second set as she won 6-0, 6-4. Teammate Julia Malone took on Lake Hamilton’s Jovana Cetnik, taking a win to face off against Fauber in the finals, 6-2, 6-1.
Fauber and Malone faced off in a tournament for the second time this