PROVO — Rowland Hall tennis coach Rich Francey will leave his team the same way he started out with it — as champions.
The Winged Lion cruised through the 1A/2A tournament at BYU on Saturday to win their fourth straight state championship, and the 10th since Francey started out as head coach by taking state in 1991.
Francey relocated to Southern California recently and spent this season racking up frequent flyer miles, coming came back once a week to coach his tennis team. He will finally step down as coach after this season, but his team made sure it wasn't before he had the chance to hoist the championship trophy one more time.
"I was burning up the airlines all of April," Francey said. "I was about as nervous today going into the final matches as I've been ever."
The Lion made it to all five finals matches and ended up winning four of them. Only Andrew Clayton's loss to Waterford freshman Calvin Bennett in the No. 1 singles kept Rowland Hall from recording a clean sweep.
It would have been the third year in a row the Lion had swept all five championships.
Clayton was actually within a single game of winning the match in the second set, but Bennett battled from a 5-3 deficit to win the set before winning the third 6-1.
Ryan Goldstein and David Marquardt won the No. 2 and 3 singles and the Lion's doubles teams of Ed Johnson-Michael Kroesche and Chris Bossart-Noel Hollingsworth each took home individual championships.
"Every team is different," said Francey. "It's the history and tradition of the school. It's been 14 years of history and fun and I'm pretty sad about (stepping down), but it's time to move on."
Coming in second in the tournament was Waterford, which had two second-place finishes to go along with Bennett's win. Mika Vale and Chris Wadsworth finished second in the No. 2 doubles and Michael Powell lost an intense three-set battle in the No. 2 singles final for the Ravens.
Manti placed third in the team standings behind Neal Sorensen's second place finish in the No. 3 singles.
Temperatures were close to 90 degrees for most of the day, a change from the last two years when the tournament was held in rainy weather.
"I've been saying all day that this is global warming," Francy joked. "This is the hottest it's ever been for the boys. Just our team went through five or six cases of water and Gatorade."
Aurthur Miyazaki and Ryan Richter of Juan Diego placed second in the No. 1 doubles, falling 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, in one of the day's closer matches.
2A TENNIS TOURNAMENT
at BYU
Final Team Standings
1. Rowland Hall; 2. Waterford; 3. Manti
Finals Results
First Singles
No. 1 Singles: Calvin Bennett (W) def. Andrew Clayton (RH) 4-6, 7-6, 6-1.
Second Singles
No. 2 Singles: Ryan Goldstein (RH) def. Michael Powell (W) 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.
Third Singles
No. 3 Singles: David Marquardt (RH) def. Neal Sorensen (M) 6-1, 6-0
First Doubles
No. 1 Doubles: Ed Johnson and Michael Kroesche (RH) def. Aurther Miyazaki and Ryan Richter (JD) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Second Doubles
No. 2 Doubles: Chris Bossart and Noel Hollingsworth (RH) def. Mika Vale and Chris Wadsworth (W) 6-2, 6-0