Top-seeded Thea Rice of Hot Springs Lakeside needed a little more than an hour to overcome Taylor Shaw of Little Rock Christian 6-3, 6-4 for her first Overall girls state tennis title Tuesday.
Rice, who was playing in the singles final for the third consecutive year, finished second the previous times, including a loss in 2015 to her sister, Tatum. She lost only one game in her quarterfinal and semifinal victories.
In the girls doubles, Avery Hargrove and Sarah Schneringer took a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Lilly Jackson and Shelby Worsham of Episcopal Collegiate.
Both teams advanced to the final with straight-set victories in the semifinals. Hargrove and Schneringer ousted Caroline Gibbens and Abby Minton of Pulaski Academy 6-1, 7-6 while Jackson and Worsham eliminated Cam Cupelli and Anna Mauromostakos of Fayetteville 7-6, 6-2.
Blustery winds at Burns Park in North Little Rock played havoc with the two singles finalists.
"When I play tennis, my goal is like this perfect shot, when the ball hits your strings just right, it's the perfect shot and I just never got that today," Rice said. "When I thought the ball would go here, it would drop.
"That made it a lot harder on me to get under control."
"I thought I played pretty well, but she played amazing," Shaw, a junior, said of her first tip to the Overall. "She always does. She's really hard to play."
Rice broke Shaw in the opening game, then held her serve for a 2-0 lead. Each player held serve through the next four games, but Rice took advantage of a double fault from Shaw to take a 5-2 advantage.
Shaw broke Rice's serve to narrow the margin, but Rice again broke Shaw to take the first set, needing a little more than 28 minutes.
The service breaks continued in the second set. Shaw won the first game, but Rice came back for a victory in the second game, then won the next two games before Shaw returned the favor in the next two.
With the two tied at 3-3, Rice held serve then broke Shaw, giving her a 5-3 lead.
Shaw narrowed the margin, breaking Rice's service, resulting in a 5-4 edge.
Rice took advantage of a double fault by Shaw, one of five she suffered in the match, to seal the victory when Shaw hit a return long.
This was the second time the two girls have met in the past two weeks. Rice took a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Shaw in the Class 5A final at Rebsamen Park Tennis Center in Little Rock.
The two seemed destined to meet in the Overall final. Neither one lost a game in their first two rounds of the Class 5A tournament.
"I've known her for a while," Rice said. "We both played in the Southern Cup for Arkansas and we will see each other a lot in junior play. We Arkansans have got to stick together."
Sports on 10/25/2017