Another overwhelming performance allowed the Swope brothers to make it a clean sweep in 2020.
Hayden and Carter Swope of Springdale Har-Ber started and finished fast to beat Bentonville's Vikram Balasekaran and Nikky Simpson 6-4, 6-2 to win the doubles championship in the boys state Overall tennis tournament Tuesday afternoon at Burns Park in North Little Rock.
The victory was the third major high school title this season for Har-Ber's duo. They won the 6A-West Conference, the Class 6A state title nearly two weeks later, then closed things out against their conference rivals.
"Oh man, this feels great," Carter Swope said. "To be a freshman and win conference, state and Overalls all in one year ... but it feels a lot better to do it with someone like Hayden. We're just so good together."
Rogers standout Collin Matthews was equally as good in his return bout with Little Rock Central's Jake Maxson in the singles final, although it was cut short.
Matthews led 5-0 in the first set when Maxson retired from the match because of an ailment. The two met a week ago in the Class 6A final, won by Matthews 6-2, 7-6.
"Yeah, injuries are tough," said Matthews, who also won the 6A-West title. "It stinks that he wasn't able to finish the match. He played a good tournament, and I wish he'd been able to finish. But if he's hurt, he's hurt.
"But for me, it feels good to win it."
Those feelings were shared by the Swope siblings, who cruised through the two-day event.
After receiving a first-round bye, they gave up three games total in their first two matches, all of which occurred during their 6-2, 6-1 semifinal victory over Jonesboro's Ethan Richardson and Carson Fowler earlier that morning. The two relinquished twice as many games to Balasekaran and Simpson in the final, but Hayden Swope said the brothers' connection was the key in the end.
"We just know each other really well," he said. "We know how to pump each other up, how to get ourselves back focused. We were just determined from Day One to be here.
"It really paid off, all the hard work."
Hayden Swope, who finished runner-up for the doubles championship last year with Conor Clardy, said Tuesday's match was officially the fifth time they had played Balasekaran and Simpson. The two teams were set to face each other in last week's Class 6A title match until an illness forced Balasekaran and Simpson to withdraw.
The Bentonville pair played well in stretches, but were broken twice in the second set. That gave the Swopes the opening they needed to establish control, with Carter Swope eventually serving out the match.
"I'm glad it was him and not me, to be honest," said Hayden Swope, a senior, about who served out the match. "He was focused and dialed in. I was banking on him to do it."