Kauffman, Hill take boys doubles crown in prep tennis final
One out of four isn’t bad, although Lakeside tennis coach Shawny Green was mildly crushed that her players didn’t win every division of the overall high-school tournament Thursday.
Spencer Kauffman and Jack Henry Hill gave Lakeside the boys doubles championship, the Ram sophomores stopping Jonesboro’s Davis McKee and Sam Edwards 6-2, 6-1 in the finals at North Little Rock’s Burns Park Tennis Center. Two-time Class 5A champions, Kauffman and Hill won 6-1, 6-1 against the same team in the overall semifinals last year before a 6-4, 7-6 finals defeat to Pulaski Academy.
“They’re the two most fun-loving kids you’ll ever want to be around,” Green said. “They know how to play tennis and how to play together. They generate such positive energy that you enjoy watching them play.”
With tennis behind him, Hill can concentrate solely on football — he’s a starting linebacker — as Jared McBride’s Rams try to reach the Class 5A playoffs after a year’s absence.
Lakeside sophomore Tatum Rice, meanwhile, turns to her first season of varsity basketball after her best effort yet in tennis against two-time overall girls singles champion Emily Metcalf.
Hoping to avenge finals defeats in last year’s overall and last week’s 5A tournaments, Rice won the first set 6-1 against the fourtime state champion from Valley View. Metcalf, a Michigan State signee, took the next two sets, 6-2, 6-4, but not before Rice served notice that the balance of power in Arkansas girls’ tennis is shifting from Craighead to Garland County.
“I don’t know what happened in the last two sets,” Green said, “but I’ve never seen Tatum play better tennis than in the first set. She was so focused and determined, and you could tell how much she wanted to win.”
A two-time 5A champion, Rice won 6-0, 6-1 over Bentonville’s Emma Baker in the morning semifinal. Metcalf advanced with a 6-2, 6-1 decision over Shelby Worsham of Episcopal Collegiate.
Lakeside senior Matt Talbert played perhaps his finest match for the school, Green said, in a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 loss to Little Rock Central freshman Anil Chakka. Talbert fulfilled his promise of
beating Hunter Harrison, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals, after losing to the Pulaski Academy sophomore in three sets in the 5A title match Oct. 21 at Lakeside.
“I think I played pretty well, especially the second and third sets,” Chakka told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “I really moved the ball well, and I did not let him dictate as much as I did in the first set.”
After the 5A final, Harrison said he expected a rematch with Talbert but picked Chakka to win the overall title.
“It’s really nice to win the first year,” Chakka said. “I thought it was so-so if I would win. It all depends on how you play and the people that you play. There are a lot of factors. You can’t guarantee anything.”
Thea Rice (Tatum’s younger sister) and Hannah Porter paired as doubles partners for the last time at Lakeside in a 6-3, 6-2 finals loss to Bentonville’s Mallory Tabler and Kendra Dinsmore. Rice, a freshman, and Porter, a senior, seeded second, won their semifinal 6-2, 6-2 over an Episcopal Collegiate team. Tabler and Dinsmore, 7A champions and top seeds, were pushed only in a 7-6 second set in the semifinals against Pulaski Academy.
Green said she was pleased with all of her players and especially that she could watch them in person. Both Lakeside teams won 5A championships, the Lady Rams for the sixth year in a row.
“You want them all to be successful,” Green said, “but for all of them to make the finals is a big deal. We got one win, and I felt really good for (Kauffman and Hill), while at the same time I felt sad for the others.”