West’s Cervantes emerges as top singles tennis player

SPRINGDALE — Cassie Cervantes noticed something was missing as she stepped onto the court to play her singles championship match during the 6A-West Conference tennis tournament.

The Bentonville West junior realized the butterflies she usually experiences to start every match were gone, and that turned out to be a good thing. Cervantes then continued her winning ways with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Cate Cole of Fort Smith South-side, giving her the league’s top seed in today’s Class 6A State Tournament at Benton-ville’s Memorial Park.

“I usually struggle a lot with being nervous,” Cervantes said. “Even in this tournament, I still was nervous about it. But once I get into the match, I tell myself things are OK and to be calm because you play better when you’re calm.

“But for the first time in a while, I was just calm. I was just ready to play my game and play without my nerves.”

Cervantes is clearly the leader on what is a young West tennis team. She is undefeated this season, and her singles championship accounted for half of the 14 points the Lady Wolverines accumulated to win their second conference title in school history.

What she has done on and off the court this fall has made things easier for Jeremiah Sullivan, who took over the coaching duties at West during the summer.

“She always has a positive attitude,” Sullivan said. “She uplifts everybody else, and that makes things easy for a coach to have somebody like her on the team.

“She’s always feeding balls and helping other players with drills. She’s always helping with keeping people’s heads in the game and keeping positive attitudes throughout their match.”

Cervantes entered the fall ready to build on what she had experienced last year, where she finished as the conference runner-up and took third in the state tournament. She then was given the opportunity to play in the state Overall tournament, and she advanced to the semifinal round.

It was something she could build upon heading into this season. The physical part of Cervantes’ game was in good shape, but she needed to work on the mental aspect of her game if she wanted to go further.

“I learned how to adapt to different players and the different people you play,” Cervantes said. “I also learned how to change your strategy based on the conditions.

“I practiced a lot over the summer, and every week I would go out and focus on one thing. Strategizing was one of them. With all my practice matches, I just kept that in mind, along with a bunch of other things I learned to practice.”

Cervantes had a small setback when she needed to undergo surgery before the season started. It caused her to miss a few of West’s early matches, and she had to get herself back in shape for tennis competition.

Everything worked in her favor, though, as she has yet to lose a singles match this fall heading into the state tournament. Cervantes will enjoy a first-round bye as the West’s top-seeded player and will await to see who her opponent will be for the quarterfinal match.

“She’s done a ton of hard, hard work,” Sullivan said. “She’s pushed herself, and I can’t take credit on how many years she has hit with her dad and how many hours she has put in with practice and tournaments throughout the season.

“You almost wish you had a whole team of Cassies that are going to keep pushing themselves and just keep going until they get whatever they want out of it.”

At a glance

At Memorial Park, Bentonville

TODAY’S MATCHES

Singles

First round (1 p.m.)

C4 Taylor Usery, Cabot, vs. W5 Pallavi Verghese, Fayetteville

W3 Glennah Langford, Bentonville, vs. C6 Sussanah De Black, Conway

W4 Stella de Vera, Rogers Heritage, vs. C5 Tasha Moreland, Mount St. Mary

C3 Jelani Jones, LR Central, vs. W6 Evie Sandlin, Fayetteville

Quarterfinals (5 p.m.)

W1 Cassie Cervantes, Bentonville West, vs. Usery-Verghese winner

C2 Abby Whittaker, Mount St. Mary, vs. Langford-De Black winner

C1 Catherine Hahn, FS Northside, vs. de Vera-Moreland winner

W2 Cate Cole, FS Southside, vs. Jones-Sandlin winner

Doubles

First round (11 a.m.)

C4 Emma McClurkin-Erin Price, Conway, vs. W5 Maddie Bynoe-Emily Fern, Bentonville

W3 Paige Weston-Eva Lopez, Bentonville West, vs. C6 Ally Miller-Blyss Miller, Cabot W4OliviaRoberts-AveryBerger,Bentonville, vs. C5 Emma Turner-Chloe Miller, Cabot C3 Ellie Carlisle-Ali Lira, FS Northside, vs. W6 Ashlyn Pursell-Haley Fulton, Rogers

Quarterfinals (3 p.m.)

W1 JK Bohnert-Grace Lueders, Rogers, vs. McClurkin-Price/Bynoe-Ferm winner C2 Libby Raffaelli-Anna Grace, Mount St. Mary, vs. Weston-Lopez/Miller-Miller winner

C1 Khushi Patil-Caroline Lasley, LR Central, vs. Roberts-Berger/Turner-Miller winner

W2 Darby Allison-Liz Files, Bentonville West, vs. Carlisle-Lira/Pursell-Hulton winner