Lehi Sports
Pioneer girls tennis wins new open tournament
Beky Beaton / Lehi Free Press
The Lehi High School girls tennis team hosted a preseason round-robin event on Aug. 7 and 8 and the Pioneers finished in a tie for first place but came out on top in sets and games won, according to Coach Glen Zobell. The program also went 3-1 in the JV portion of the event.
Each team played four matches and Lehi tied with Alta and Westlake with team records of 3-1. However, the Pioneers won 29 sets to 28 for the Thunder and 27 for the Hawks. The other teams participating were Wasatch (2-2), Provo (1-3) and Maple Mountain (0-4).
“It was the first-ever Lehi Ladies Open Tennis Tournament,” the coach said. “We’ve got some new and old faces on the team this year and we’re excited with the unity we have so far. We missed a couple of varsity players for these matches and are excited to see them in action over the next few weeks.
“I want to offer my congratulations to the girls for their efforts,” Zobell added. “They worked and played hard.”
The only varsity loss was to Alta 3-2. Junior Kinley Olson won at No. 1 Singles 6-1, 6-3 and in First Doubles, senior Liberty Salcido and junior Claire Thatcher combined for an identical victory of 6-1, 6-3.
The Pioneers defeated the Wasps 3-2 in that round. In Second Singles, senior Ella Gonzalez triumphed 6-3, 6-0. Salcido and Thatcher again won, this time by scores of 6-2, 6-3 at No. 1 Doubles. In Second Doubles, seniors Abigail Cox and Eden Waddell had to come from behind to win 6-7, 6-4, 14-12.
In the competition against Maple Mountain, all three of those entries again won and sophomore Caitlin Griffith added a victory at No. 3 Singles with a recorded score of 7-6 (4), 6-2 for a 4-1 team result.
In the Provo match, Lehi again prevailed 4-1, this time with the lone loss being in First Doubles. The pairing of Cox and Waddell won 6-3, 7-5 on No. 2 Doubles, and the singles players all took a turn in a different slot to earn the team’s other wins in the match.
At First Singles, it was Ella Gonzalez with a 6-1, 6-1 victory, while sophomore Sophie Gonzalez played for a 7-5, 6-0 win at No. 2 Singles and sophomore Sahasya Sandepogu garnered a 6-1, 6-2 result in the Third Singles slot.
The Pioneers began Region 3 play this week with Skyridge on Tuesday (Aug. 18). They will visit American Fork on Thursday (Aug. 20). Matches start at 3 p.m.
