Dolan, Cowen reach finals, play next week in overall

The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen OVERALL: Lakeside senior Olivia Dolan serves Tuesday during a Class 5A state tennis semifinal doubles match against Searcy's Kamie Provence and Molly Parker at Lakeside. Dolan and teammate Mary Catherine Cowen won their semifinal match to qualify for next week's overall state tournament.
The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen OVERALL: Lakeside senior Olivia Dolan serves Tuesday during a Class 5A state tennis semifinal doubles match against Searcy's Kamie Provence and Molly Parker at Lakeside. Dolan and teammate Mary Catherine Cowen won their semifinal match to qualify for next week's overall state tournament.

Jonesboro walked away with both Class 5A state tennis titles Tuesday as the two-day tournament wrapped up at Lakeside's tennis courts.

Despite the threat of rain, most of the last two rounds of the tournament were able to be played on the school's outdoor courts, but the girls' singles final was moved to the Hot Springs Country Club's indoor courts in the middle of the third set as a cloudburst forced the players to leave the court. Jonesboro's Jenna Payne took the win over Mountain Home's Emily Heide after dropping the first set, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1.

Mountain Home was the 5A girls runner up while West Memphis was the boys runner up.

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The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen GIRLS' FINALIST: Lakeside junior Mary Catherine Cowen returns the ball Tuesday during a semifinal doubles match against Searcy's Kamie Provence and Molly Parker at Lakeside in the Class 5A state tournament.

The Lakeside girls' doubles team of senior Olivia Dolan and junior Mary Catherine Cowen advanced to the finals with a win over Searcy's Kamie Provence and Molly Parker in the semifinals. The Lakeside team dropped the first set, 4-6, but battled back to take the second and third sets, 7-5, 6-2.

The Lady Rams duo then faced the favorites from Jonesboro, Cameron Hafner and Clara Parker. Dolan and Cowen took the Lady Hurricanes pair to three sets earlier this season. Hafner and Parker claimed the doubles title, 6-3, 6-1.

"I thought we played really well," Dolan said. "The team was hard, so there's not much you can do about it."

"We played them during the season, and we played better than we did then," Cowen agreed. "It's always good to improve. Our three-set match was good."

A small amount of rain started to fall in the second set of the final, but the Lakeside pair said it did not affect their play.

"I don't think so," Cowen said with a laugh. "It felt kind of good, honestly."

Dolan and Cowen also qualified to play in next week's overall state tournament to be held at Burns Park in North Little Rock.

"I'm excited," they said together.

"It'll be a lot harder than state, but it will be fun," Dolan noted.

Lakeside coach Shawny Green said that she was proud of her team's performance.

"I was just super proud of M.C. and Olivia pulling it out," she said. "Olivia is a senior. She's never been to the overall tournament before, so I'm super excited that they made it that far and they get to go do that for her senior year."

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The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen SENIOR RETURN: Lakeside senior Ian Hollis returns the ball Tuesday during a semifinal match against West Memphis' Carlson Bennage at Lakeside in the Class 5A state tennis tournament.

Lakeside's Ian Hollis, the only other local player to advance to the second day, struggled in his matches, falling to West Memphis' Carlson Bennage in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1, in the semifinal match. The senior then fell to Little Rock Christian's Eli Pierce in the third-place match, 8-2.

"Ian played very well and was just outmatched," Green said. "He did a super good job. I was very proud of him as well. He played him hard. Those points were long points, but he was just outmatched."

Green said she thought the tournament went smoothly, despite the late rain on Tuesday.

"Considering it just started raining in the third set of that last match," Green said. "We're going to go play those couple of games at the country club. I'm just glad we started early, and I'm glad we kept rolling with it."

Sports on 10/10/2018

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