Jonesboro repeats for fourth straight title
Hollis falls in final, battles over 5 hours in two matches
For the fourth straight year, Jonesboro clinched the Class 5A state tennis championship for both girls and boys, winning every single final at Lakeside Tuesday.
Junior Jenna Payne picked up her third-straight Class 5A singles title while freshman Joseph Patton held on to defeat top-seeded Ben Hollis from Lakeside in three sets. The girls doubles team of Lauren Guadamuz and Peyton Mullins took a 6-2, 6-1 win over West Memphis’ Samantha Holt and Taylor Brossett while the top-seeded doubles team of Ethan Richardson and Carson Fowler defeated teammates Ryan Rouse and Win Gibson in the finals, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
With plenty of places to learn, the school has a wealth of players to draw from.
“We love it. Jonesboro’s a tennis town,” said Jonesboro tennis coach Jason Morgan. “We have you know the Jonesboro Country Club, Trim Gym, Ridgepointe (Country Club). There’s Earl Bell Community Center. There’s a bunch of different tennis programs in town, so they’re always bringing new kids along every year. They start young in our town, and so winning tennis here, it’s important to us for sure.”
Lakeside finished as runner-up in both boys and girls this year, but coach Shawny Green feels her players gave it their all.
“I’m happy with it,” she said. “I think Ben played his little heart out. He just ran out of gas a little there at the end. I’m super proud of him. If they played again, it might go the other way. … Grayson (Cornelison) and Walker (Wood) did a great job pulling out third place. … And Griffin (Gulley) and (William) Ivy lost to a really good Jonesboro team.
“I’m very proud. You know, I think they did as much as could be expected, as far as that goes. So, we’ll take second place. Jonesboro is tough.”
Payne jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first set of her final against Little Rock Parkview’s Emmory Simmons, but Simmons managed to come back to take the third game before Payne rolled to a 6-1 win of the first set.
“The first three games of every set are definitely the hardest. … I’ve played this girl before, so I kind of knew how she played, and it was a little nerve-wracking because in the back of your mind, even though you shouldn’t think it, you are trying to defend a title. So that’s pressure that necessarily shouldn’t be on there, but it is. And so I was trying to just kind of keep it out of my head, play point-for-point, and I think that’s definitely what helped me through it,” Payne explained after her match.
Payne again got a 2-0 lead before dropping the third game in the second set, stretching out to a 4-1 lead, but Simmons took advantage of some unforced errors by the junior from Jonesboro to win the next two sets and pull within 4-3. Payne settled in for the final two games to take the win.
“Trying to clinch those two games are the hardest games to clench just because it’s 8 points, but winning 4 points, more or less in a row, is a lot harder than it sounds,” Payne explained. “And, you know, she was just hitting some better shots, and I was getting nervous, and if those nerves get to you, that can be really deadly in a tighter match.”
Patton took advantage of an exhausted Hollis in the finals to claim the win. Hollis faced off against Batesville’s Thomas Morgan in the semifinals, in a match that lasted just under three hours.
Hollis jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the first set before Morgan won five straight games to take a 7-5 win, but Hollis battled it out in the second set, trailing early before coming back to take a 7-6 win in the second with a 7-3 win in the tiebreak. Hollis won the first three games of the third set before dropping one, before eventually taking the 6-2 win.
“It’s really cool,” Hollis said of reaching the finals after the win over Morgan. “I didn’t get this opportunity last year. But I’m most excited for overalls. That’s going to be fun.”
Morgan said that he started hitting quality serves to turn things around after a 5-2 deficit, but that proved to be his downfall late in the match as well.
“I had the serve going, and I started hitting my shots,” he said. “Then later
in the sets, I started missing. If my serve’s not good, then I’m not doing good with that today. That’s just how it is.”
Despite just under 45 minutes between his semifinal and final, Hollis did not look affected early as he cruised to a 6-1 lead over Patton in the first set, but he could not get things going in the second set as Patton won four straight games before Hollis came back to win the fifth. Patton then won the next two sets, most of which consisted of rallies of 15 or more returns for the 6-1 win.
Both players struggled with some unforced errors after the extended break between the second and third sets, but Hollis managed a 3-1 lead before fatigue became obvious. The two players split sets before Patton, making Hollis run the baseline in each of the long rallies, won the final four to claim the title.
“Coming in this, I didn’t feel much pressure until coming into the (finals of the) tournament, seeing players that I’ve seen before and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a player I know, I’ve seen. I’ve played before. I know it will be tough.’ I’ve seen his record. I see how good he’s been doing lately. It’s just astonishing,” Patton said following the win.
Patton said that what helped get him over the top was remembering that the outcome of the match was more than just for him.
“I was kind of going into the match with a me-centric mindset,” he said. “My mom reminded me, ‘This is for the team. This is for the team, not for you,’ and it kind of locked in my mind, like, ‘Yeah, it isn’t just for me; it’s for the team.’ I went in and executed that in the third set and did not give up, no matter the external factors, sun, cramps, whatever.”
While Hollis was disappointed in the loss, he is happy to have improved over last year’s result.
“That’s a good feeling, and it also makes me very optimistic about the future, you know,” he said. “Next year, I think Lakeside can take home the gold.”