FAYETTEVILLE -- Bentonville had a mostly stress-free day in the girls 7A-West Conference tennis tournament Friday.
The Lady Tigers displayed their depth in the doubles finals, where the No. 2 team of Bessie Sullivan and Taylor Cheug-Damonte beat Bentonville's No. 1 team of Avery Hargrove and Emily Gean 8-10, 6-4, 7-5. Bentonville also took the singles title when No. 1 seed Adriana Canigova defeated Katherine Tang of Rogers High, 6-4, 6-0.
The Bentonville girls again looks like the team to beat when they host the Class 7A state tournament Oct. 19-20.
"This was fun," Bentonville coach Nick Nersesian said.
Nersesian particularly enjoyed the competition between his top doubles teams, where Sullivan and Cheug-Damonte rallied to top their higher-seeded teammates. The match was intense at times, but the four teammates hugged each other before they walked off the court after a long day of tennis.
"Am I surprised? No," Nersesian said after his No. 2 doubles team won the conference championship. "These girls have been battling each other in practice all year, and they've been battling with the boys out there. It's nice to see good tennis, and they gave us good matches today."
Canigova appeared to gain confidence in the singles final after she held off Tang 6-4 in the first set. She then dominated the second set, 6-0.
"The score doesn't reflect how well both of these girls played," Nersesian said. "Katherine does some things that Adriana doesn't get to see all year. As the match went on, Adriana learned some things and she adjusted. We'll work on some things this week that I saw she needs to work on."
Tang is a former doubles champion who lost for the first time after switching to singles play midway through the season.
"Adriana and Katherine are both high-level players," Rogers coach Matt Fulton said. "It was a blast to watch both of them. Both of them can entertain with their ability to move and ability to hit."
Canigova advanced to the finals with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Shreya Majagi of Rogers in the semifinals.
Sports on 10/10/2015