The Rice harvest of Lakeside tennis ended Tuesday with high market value.
In her last high school tennis match, Thea Rice equaled the 2015 distinction of older sister Tatum as overall girls singles champion. The younger Rice dropped only two games in two matches before defeating Little Rock Christian's Taylor Shaw 6-3, 6-4 at Burns Park in North Little Rock.
Rice breezed past Kristyn Tappana (Haas Hall Bentonville) and Emily Heide (Mountain Home) before facing Shaw, who defeated Fayetteville's Mary Houston 6-3 6-3 in the other semifinal.
Blake Wooldridge and Noah Ross, Lakeside's other representatives in the two-day tournament, lost in the semfinals to eventual champions Henry Nolan and Steven Weeks of Little Rock Catholic.
Boys singles went to Pulaski Academy's Foster Rogers, 7-6, 6-2 over Little Rock Catholic's Parker Stearns 7-6, 6-2, while Bentonville West's Avery Hargrove and Sarah Schneringer took girls doubles, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 over Lilly Jackson and Shelby Worsham of Episcopal Collegiate.
Rice was top seeded after winning the Class 5A title last week. She lost 6-3, 6-3 to sister Tatum in the 2015 overall singles final after reaching the overall doubles final with Hannah Porter as a freshman in 2014.
Thea plans to join Tatum next year at the University of Arkansas, where her older sister is a freshman and on the UA tennis team.
"In the past six years I've had a Rice sister on my team," said Shawny Green, Lakeside's tennis coach since 2003. "Next year I won't, believe it or not."
Thea and Tatum played basketball together at Lakeside but were more closely associated with tennis, playing in several out-of-state tournaments. Tatum reached the overall singles final in 2014, losing to Valley View's Emily Metcalf, before winning the title as a junior.
"It starts with their parents," said Green, referring to Paul and Tracy Rice (the former Tracy Webb, of Batesville, among the most decorated UA women's basketball players, is a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame). "Both girls have a really good work ethic and a really good attitude.
"Some kids have an air about them that they're above it all. Thea and Tatum never considered themselves above anything and would do what you wanted them to do."
Thea is definitely the more fiery of the two, said Green, and "that may be because she's the younger sister."
Thea joined Tatum and the 2016 doubles team of Jack Henry Hill and Spencer Kauffman as recent overall state tennis champions for Lakeside. No one will be surprised if the legacy continues next fall, although at least on the girls' side the marquee names will change.
Sports on 10/26/2017