Pace starts strong, advances to 5A-South semifinals
Tennis lessons have really paid off for Hot Springs senior Ella Pace, who advanced to the 5A- South conference semifinals Tuesday afternoon with a 6-3, 6-1 win over El Dorado’s Millee Mobley.
Admittedly more focused on equestrian dressage generally, Pace decided to take tennis lessons this year after her horse shows had been canceled.
“Tennis isn’t the main thing I do,” she said. “I mean the main thing I do is ride horses, so tennis has always been something just fun for me to do. I started taking lessons this year because all of my horse shows got canceled, so it’s been really nice to be able to do something that I just enjoy doing and still do well at it.”
Pace has definitely improved. She has lost just one match this season — to Lake Hamilton’s Jovana Cetnik, earning her the No. 2 seed after the Lady Wolves had to withdraw from the tournament after being forced to quarantine due to contact tracing.
Pace earned a bye into the second round, where she faced Mobley. She jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening set before a rough game left her garnering just a single point.
Pace won the next two sets before dropping back-to-back sets to Mobley, the second a battle that saw the two players trading points before Pace knocked the ball into the net, letting Mobley pull within 5-3. Mobley battled early in the ninth game, but while Pace moved to a placement-focused attack,
Mobley went for power, driving shots long or wide before dumping the set-winning point into the net.
“I hurt my shoulder yesterday, so I was, at the start, you know, I was feeling good with all the ibuprofen in the BioFreeze, and it started to wear off,” Pace explained. “I could tell my serve was getting tired, so I just started slowing it down a little and just trying to play more consistent. … And she’s really consistent, so I was trying to work on placement more than power because she was returning everything I hit at her. The placement game started working a little better.”
After going up 1-0 to start the second set, Pace struggled a bit during her service, dumping three balls into the net and sending one long to knot the second set. She quickly recovered, winning five straight games to earn the semifinal berth, where she will face White Hall’s Dia Dudlani today at 10 a.m.
Top-seeded Haley Fauber, a senior from Lakeside, also earned a bye, facing White Hall’s Sushma Dudlani in the second round. Fauber won, 6-2, 6-1, and will face Texarkana’s Mary Dowd in today’s semifinals.
In boys singles, Lakeside sophomore Ben Hollis downed Texarkana’s Riley Bennett in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0, to face Lake Hamilton freshman Peter Bobnar in today’s semifinals. Bobnar, who was the No. 4 seed, defeated El Dorado’s Baylor Blackburn in the first round, 6-2, 6-0, and downed White Hall’s Alex Bowman, 6-4, 6-2, to reach the
See additional photos from Tuesday’s 5A-South tennis tournament at hotsr.com.
semis.
Doubles
Lakeside sophomores Greyson Cornelison and Walker Wood have earned a berth into next week’s Class 5A state tournament once again, having reached the second round of the tournament last year as freshmen.
Facing off against White Hall’s Aaron Warriner and Greg Wolfe after earning the top seed, the hard-hitting duo started off strong in both sets, taking a 3-0 lead, before losing a game. Cornelison ran into some struggles, mishitting several shots into the net as Wolf served the Bulldogs’ duo within 3-1.
“I felt like we made a strong start,” Wood said. “We made a few mistakes. … We kind of learned from what we did and used it to help each other.”
The Rams pairing did not lay down, winning the next two games to take a 5-1 lead before Warriner and Wolfe cut into the lead again. Wolfe and Warriner were unable to stop three straight cross-court shots by Cornelison, but the pair managed to get a deep shot past Wood before the Bulldogs dropped one into the net for the 6-2 set for the Rams.
Wood and Cornelison again got off to a strong start, 3-0, before Wolfe served up four straight points for the Bulldogs’ first game of the second set. The two pairings battled for each point in the next two games, but Wood and Cornelison held on for a 5-1 lead.
With a 40-15 lead in the seventh game of the set, Wolfe sent a beautiful shot down the right line to again pull within three games, but bad hits on each attempt by both Bulldogs left Wood and Cornelison reaching the semifinals.
“I feel like we’re going to do good,” Cornelison said of reaching the semifinal round.
The Rams duo will face Texarkana’s
Smith and McCoy today at 10 a.m. in the semifinals.
“It’ll be a good match,” Wood said. “Competitive.”
Third-seeded Lakeside sophomores William Ivy and Griffin Gulley also advanced to the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Lake Hamilton’s Kai Condley and Austin Praetzel.
Top-seeded Lakeside sophomores Julia Malone and Elizabeth Cowen took a straight-set vicotry over Lake Hamilton’s Natalie Tedder and Kindsey Faulkner, 6-0, 6-0. No. 2-seeded Lakeside seniors Ava Monte and Lily McDonough advacned with a straight-set win over El Dorado’s Smith and Byrd.
Semifinal matches are set for 10 a.m. today with the finals and third- place games set for 1 p.m.