Pressure Doesn’t Faze Heritage’s Darter

Player Takes Second Straight Title

STAFF PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BEN GOFF 
Alye Darter, Rogers Heritage girls singles tennis player, was named the NWA Media Girls Tennis Singles Player of the Year. Darter, a sophomore, repeated as the Class 7A state champion.

STAFF PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BEN GOFF Alye Darter, Rogers Heritage girls singles tennis player, was named the NWA Media Girls Tennis Singles Player of the Year. Darter, a sophomore, repeated as the Class 7A state champion.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

— Rogers Heritage girls tennis coach Tiffany Taylor marveled at Alye Darter’s maturity and poise this season.

Taylor came away impressed as the sophomore cruised to her second consecutive Class 7A state singles title, losing only a total of 11 games in six sets. Throw in the fact she was also a key contributor on Heritage’s volleyball team, which set a school record for wins in a season, and Darter enjoyed a huge fall.

Darter has been honored as the NWA Media Girls Tennis Singles Player of the Year for her efforts.

She has two individual state titles to her credit before her 16th birthday, but her play belies her young age, Taylor said.

“I saw a lot of maturity out of her in the state tournament,” Taylor said. “She handles pressure really well, emotionally and otherwise. She just came out and played spectacular.”

Taylor said Darter even admitted to being nervous prior to the state finals match, but it was hard to tell. She breezed past Fort Smith Southside’s Lindsey Pearce 6-0, 6-3, after needing three sets to defeat Pearce in the finals last year.

“I know I was excited for her and how well she played,” Taylor said. “She handled the Fort Smith girl pretty easily. But she said ‘I’m kinda nervous.’ The way she played, the way she carried herself, made me forget I guess she was in the state finals.”

Looks can be deceiving for sure since Darter said winning her second title was more difficult than the first.

“It was hard, leading up to the state tournament. I was more stressed out,” Darter said. “The practices leading up to the state tournament I was hitting awful. I was like ‘Great, it’s the state tournament, and I’m not going to perform. It’s going to be horrible.’”

Darter won her second straight 7A-West Conference title but didn’t play particularly well by her standards. She dropped the opening set in the conference semifinals and struggled to be consistent, despite winning the finals in straight sets.

But all the doubt seemed to go away with the first serve in the state tournament, Darter said.

“I don’t know what it was, but my game just clicked,” Darter said. “I guess I decided I wasn’t going to lose. I just wanted to play my game, and it worked. Just about every shot I wanted to hit, I was able to hit.”

Darter also dealt with the challenge of playing a key role on the Heritage volleyball team, while playing tennis at the same time. That’s not going to change, Darter said.

“It’s fun. I enjoy it,” Darter said. “I think it went pretty well, but I’ve got to get back on top of my school work since I was gone quite a bit.”

Both Darter and Taylor agreed, she’s extremely hard on herself, but she also understands her accomplishment.

“Winning two state titles, it’s a big accomplishment,” Darter said. “I am proud of myself.”

That won’t stop her from working even harder to earn a third title next season.