Parker Stearns might not have had his best serve working on Monday, but the Little Rock Catholic junior came up big when it mattered.
Stearns, the Class 7A state tournament defending champion, held off Rogers junior Michael Zheng, 6-1, 6-4, in the state quarterfinals at the Rebsamen Tennis Center in Little Rock.
"Today was a really good day for my backhand," Stearns said. "I did a lot of good things with it. And I've been working a lot with my serve. It wasn't my best today, but it came up clutch, especially in deuce points. I tried to play steady and make him miss."
Parker will attempt to keep his run going in today's final two rounds. He will play Hayden Shoemake of Bentonville West in the 10 a.m. semifinals. The title game is set for a 1 p.m. start.
Zheng, who reached the 2015 state semifinals, tested Parker in a 1-hour, 15-minute match.
Parker won the first three games of the first set, but Zheng held serve in the fourth game and grabbed a love-40 advantage in the fifth game. Parker, however, used an ace to make it 30-40 and it eventually led to the fifth-game comeback.
"I definitely think that ace really helped," Parker said. "I think at 30-40, he got a little tight. I got tight too, but he was probably a little tighter. ... That probably made him a little made. If I were up love-40 and lost, I'd be mad too."
Zheng led 3-2 in the second set before Stearns broke Zheng's serve to regain an advantage. Serving at 5-4, Stearns started the final game with back-to-back double faults before ending the match with four consecutive points.
"I hit a really good slice serve and that got me back into it," Stearns said. "The double fault made me a little mad, but you can't let that get you down. ... I didn't want to be down 40-15 or 40-love. I just tried to make my best serve at 30-love."
Jack Vaughan of Rogers and Ethan Eddleman of Fort Smith Southside will play in the other semifinal.
The Catholic doubles team of Henry Nolen and Steven Weeks advanced to today's semifinals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Nitchell Berry and Connor Clardy of Springdale Har-Ber. Nolen and Weeks are the defending state champions.
In the girls tournament, top-seeded Presley Southerland advanced with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Emma Baker of Bentonville. Southerland will face Cam Cupelli of Fayetteville in today's semifinals.
Brooke Killingworth of Bentonville and Eleanor Burks of Little Rock Central will play in the other semifinal.
Bentonville and Fayetteville each placed two teams in the doubles semifinals. Bentonville's Bessie Sullivan and Yasmine Humbert will play Mary Houston and Anna Mauromoustakos of Fayetteville while Bentonville's Taylor Damonte and Avery Hargrove will play Bella Bain and Julia Rogers of Fayetteville in the other semifinal.
Catholic is the defending boys champion; Bentonville won the girls 2015 state title.
Sports on 10/18/2016