Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Coleman, Richardson net state titles

- ERICK TAYLOR

Simplicity was what Ella Coleman wanted going into Tuesday’s Class 6A girls state tennis final, and simplicity is what she got to help her win it.

The Bentonvill­e senior rallied from a deep hole in the first set and survived several charges in the second to pull out a hard-fought 7-6, 6-4 victory over Rogers Heritage’s Stella de Vera on a pleasant, yet occasional windy afternoon at the Rebsamen Tennis Center in Little Rock.

The straight-set win not only capped a riveting tournament run for Coleman, but it also allowed the Navy commit to reclaim her throne atop the state’s largest classifica­tion.

“Oh man, this is really big,” said Coleman, who finished as runner-up as a freshman and won the state title as a sophomore before sitting out last season. “I wanted to come back and finish strong my senior year. It just feels good to know that I was able to come out and do that.”

That strong outing in the championsh­ip match also played a role in Bentonvill­e claiming its first state title since 2020 and fifth over the past nine seasons. Little Rock Central, on the strength of its doubles’ championsh­ip duo of Caroline Lasley and Khushi Patil, finished second while Rogers Heritage was third.

Lasley and Patil lost in the finals last season, but the tandem redeemed that finish by outlasting Bentonvill­e’s Glennah Langford Kavya Kurichety 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 to win the title. The two teams were tied 3-3 in the third-set tiebreaker until Lasley and Patil closed by winning four of the last five points.

On the boys side, Jonesboro’s Ethan Richardson withstood a stiff challenge from Bentonvill­e West’s Graham Hardin to garner the singles championsh­ip 7-5, 6-2, while Fayettevil­le’s Jacob Nordin and Spencer Holloway rebounded to take down Bentonvill­e’s Boyce Reed and Santiago Aquirre 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 and take the doubles’ crown.

Incidental­ly, the victories from Richardson and the twosome of Nordin and Holloway helped enable Jonesboro and Fayettevil­le to share the boys team championsh­ip. The title was the fifth straight for the Golden Hurricane, who won the previous four in Class 5A, and second in a row for Fayettevil­le in 6A.

Coleman’s championsh­ip this year may have been her toughest.

After fending off last year’s champ, Cassie Cervantes of Bentonvill­e West, 6-3, 7-5 in the semifinals, Coleman found herself staring across the net against a familiar foe in de Vera that had just as much motivation as she had.

A junior, de Vera, was beaten in the 2021 final by Cervantes in a three-set thriller but exacted revenge two weeks ago by defeating the Lady Wolverines’ ace in the 6A-West Conference championsh­ip. For Coleman, her method of attack against the hard-hitting righthande­r wasn’t complicate­d.

It was simply attack and counteratt­ack.

“She has a really great forehand,” she said of de Vera. “So I knew I was gonna have to try and get it to her backhand. She likes to run around her backhand and hit those forehands, and I knew I had to do that.

“And then for me, I had to use by backhand to get into rallies and attack with it.”

There was plenty of give and take in the opening set, with each earning a break on the others’ first service game. De Vera broke again later in the set on an unforced error, then grabbed a 5-3 lead when a Coleman forehand sailed long.

But the Lady Tigers’ standout saved back-to-back set points and eventually forced a tiebreaker, where she used her backhand consistent­ly to win seven of eight points.

In the second set, Coleman ran out to a 3-1 advantage only to see de Vera storm back and again tie it at 3-3. The two would exchange breaks, but a shot in the net from de Vera gave Coleman a pivotal game and as well as a chance to serve for match.

Easier said than done. “The nerves definitely kicked in after that,” Coleman explained. “The closer it got, I started to feel it. But I just wanted to keep calm and play my game.”

She did just that and went on to pull out the victory after a backhand from de Vera went wide.

“I felt a lot of pressure coming back in my senior year,” Coleman said. “But to go out and win it. … it’s such a great feeling.”

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 ?? (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Colin Murphey) ?? Bentonvill­e’s Ella Coleman hits a forehand Tuesday during her 7-6, 6-4 victory over Stella de Vera of Rogers Heritage in the girls singles final of the Class 6A state tennis tournament at Rebsamen Tennis Center in Little Rock. More photos at arkansason­line.com/1012tennis/.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Colin Murphey) Bentonvill­e’s Ella Coleman hits a forehand Tuesday during her 7-6, 6-4 victory over Stella de Vera of Rogers Heritage in the girls singles final of the Class 6A state tennis tournament at Rebsamen Tennis Center in Little Rock. More photos at arkansason­line.com/1012tennis/.

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