FAYETTEVILLE — Deja vu was served up by Bentonville on Tuesday.
The Tigers claimed their second consecutive Class 7A State Boys Tennis championship at the Billingsley Tennis Center, and just like last year Bentonville relied on strong play out of the doubles bracket to pull away from the field.
Battling Fayetteville for the team title, the Tigers sealed up the championship in the semifinal round when the doubles teams of Jordan Sheppard and Zach Ellis as well as Kevin Morris and Matt Tabler advanced to the finals.
Sheppard and Ellis cruised into the finals with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Will Ginger and Colton Cheek of Fayetteville. But for Morris and Tabler, a come-from-behind victory was needed against Luke Lundstrom and Kyle Henry of Fayetteville.
After falling behind with a 3-6 loss in the first set, Morris and Tabler rallied to win the match, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.
“After the second set, I felt like we needed to help the team and help clinch this title for them by winning the third set,” Tabler said. “So we went out there and got the third set.”
Bentonville won last year’s Class 7A Tournament in the same fashion, by advancing two teams to the boys doubles finals.
“Matt was a little under the weather, but we weren’t going to use that as an excuse,” Tigers coach Paul Pautsch said. “So Kevin was really picking him up and then Matt came alive and hit some great returns. And we were really pleased with the way those boys played.
“And we said Sunday at practice, ‘If we get 15 points, nobody can beat us,’ and that’s exactly what we got. So I’m just so proud of my doubles teams, and I’m extremely proud of my singles players. They both won two rounds, and when we have a team like that, that is a team.”
Ellis, a senior, teamed with Sheppard to defeat teammates Morris and Tabler, 6-2, 6-2 in the finals to give Ellis a third consecutive boys state doubles championship.
In the girls team competition, Little Rock Central, Rogers High and Rogers Heritage finished in a three-way tie at the top with eight points apiece. Central built up most of its team points in the first three rounds and held onto a share of the championship despite having just one player, Lindsey Liles, in a finals match.
Rogers and Heritage earned their share of the title by winning the singles and doubles finals, respectively. Tiffany Tang picked up seven of the Lady Mounties eight points with her second consecutive girls singles state championship, defeating Liles, 6-1, 6-1.
“I just tried to play my best and I hit my shots pretty well,” Tang said. “I thought I played pretty well throughout the whole tournament.”
The Lady War Eagles got seven points in doubles from the team of Pratheepa Ravikumar and Ellen Lundy, including a 6-3, 6-2 victory in the finals to lock up a share of the championship.
In boys singles, Fayetteville junior Reid Churchill outlasted Little Rock Central’s Austin Crawford 7-6, 2-6, 6-1.
“I thought it was going to be a long three-set match,” Churchill said. “We’ve played before, and they’ve both been just that long.”