Greenwood sophomore Olivia Gaston is one step away.
She has had an eye on a spot in the finals of the Class 6A state tennis championships for the past year, and she advanced toward it with a 6-1, 6-1 girls singles quarterfinal victory over Jonesboro sophomore Madison Shelton at the Burns Park Tennis Center in North Little Rock on Monday.
As a freshman last season, Gaston and Mountain Home's Emily Heide met in the championship, won by Heide, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.
"I want to get back there," Gaston said. "She has a really good game, but I'm ready to play her if I do."
Heide advanced to this year's semifinals with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Macy Barker of El Dorado. With semifinal victories today, Gaston and Heide will meet in the final, scheduled for 1 p.m.
"I felt my game was pretty good today," Gaston said.
Heide is scheduled to play Alex Trudell of Benton in the semifinals. Trudell was a 6-4, 6-2 quarterfinals winner over Lindsey Gill of Greenwood. Alexis Downum of El Dorado, a 6-4, 6-4 quarterfinal winner over Kamie Provence of Searcy, will play Gaston. The semifinals are scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
Gaston took 43 minutes to defeat Shelton. She began the first set with consecutive three-point victories before Shelton returned from love-30 to win the third game. Gaston won the next three games by three, four and three points, respectively. The final game went deuce, but Gaston prevailed.
"She had great placement on her shots, and that really affected me," Shelton said.
Shelton and Gaston had never before played. Shelton said she found little routine in Gaston's game.
"I noticed that after I would serve, her approach would always go short, so I started serving and volleying more," Shelton said. "I was trying to get it where I could place the ball where I wanted, instead of her attacking me."
"She had a good drop shot, and she had good volleys," Gaston said. "I tried to keep her further back when I could, but sometimes she brought me in."
Gaston led the second set 4-0 before Shelton won her second game of the match. Shelton said she hoped to change the momentum, but her game was not sharp enough to overcome Gaston.
"When I won that game, I said, 'Come on, let's go,' '' Shelton said. "But it didn't work out."
Sports on 10/17/2017