Polk’s Livesay upended in state 2A tennis tourney

Polk County’s Alivia Livesay saw her steller season – and Wolverine career – come to an end Friday in the first round of the state 2A tennis championships in Cary.

Livesay suffered a hard-fought 6-3, 5-7, 6-0 loss to West Davidson’s Olivia Varner on Friday morning at Cary Tennis Center.

The loss concluded what has been a great Polk County career for Livesay, who won three Western Highlands Conference doubles championships and the WHC singles title this season.

Varner was eliminated in the quarterfinals by First Flight’s Caroline Cowan. The tournament concluded on Saturday with Salisbury’s Kayla Honeycutt winning the state title.

Honeycutt defeated Jessica Ille of Carrboro in the final, 6-3, 6-0.

Honeycutt had lost only one game in four sets in Friday’s action and then eliminated Shelby’s Nancy Bridges, the 2013 state 2-A singles runner-up and state champion two years ago, in a Saturday morning semifinal 6-2, 6-2.

The doubles team of Hannah Archer and Olivia Archer of Lake Norman Charter was dominant in its march to the championship. The Lake Norman Charter duo did not even lose a game in its first three victories, including a Saturday morning semifinal, and then won the state crown with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Lydia Yuan and Sara Yuan of Durham North Carolina School Science & Math.