Tuesday afternoon marked the finals of the boy’s 7A West Tennis Conference Championship and it was a battle. In the end Bentonville narrowly beat out two-time defending champion Fayetteville 15-14.
"We were fortunate today, Fayetteville is very competitive," said Bentonville coach Nick Nersesian. "It was a great opportunity for us to come down here to Fayetteville and we were one point better today."
This is really awesome," said Benton junior Dylan DeLuca. "Fayetteville is such a good team. We haven’t won conference the last two years. Last year we tied and the year before we lost. It’s nice to actually get the conference championship before we head to state."
The dynamic duo of Jordan Sheppard and Michael Morse claimed the doubles league title, and Junior Dylan Deluca fought two-time defending state Champion Reed Churchill of Fayetteville in the singles finals but came up just short as he took second. While those three names headlined the tournament for Bentonville every member played a vital role in the team winning the coveted 7A West title.
"It was a team effort," said Nersesian. "Everyone got points who was supposed to get points. I was really impressed with our singles players today. They got us the points we needed. The doubles side helped put us in a position for seeding in the state tournament which will help us out."
Bentonville heads to North Little Rock early next week to try and win a third straight State Championship.