PROVO — Claiming the 2A/1A boys state tennis title each May has become a formality of sorts for Rowland Hall, which sealed its fourth consecutive team championship Saturday on BYU's tennis courts.

Just don't tell the Winged Lions they made it look easy.

"Winning the title is never easy or expected," Rowland Hall coach Tim Sleeper said. "There are a lot of really good players, and the pressure out here makes everybody play differently, so you never know how it's going to turn out."

Led by junior Joe Illingworth, who defeated Waterford's Jay Anderson in the No. 1 singles championship match, Rowland Hall amassed 23 points to dominate the team standings. Parowan took second with 10 points, while Waterford placed third with 5 points.

The Winged Lions advanced all three of their singles players and both doubles teams to the final round, where they won four of five title matches. Parowan's twosome of Kelton Abbott and Brandon Rowley prevented the sweep with a 6-3, 7-5 win in the No. 1 doubles final.

Rowland Hall's Ben Friedman and Matthew Bossart claimed the No. 2 and No. 3 singles titles, respectively, while the duo of Jonathan Zubair and Beau Sperry won the No. 2 doubles title. Bossart's title, which he won 6-0, 6-0 in about half an hour, was his fourth in as many years.

"We had a team that's patient and well-disciplined, and they played really inspired tennis today," Sleeper said. "We have seven seniors who have been really steady, so I don't think it's a coincidence that we've won four straight titles."

While his team has been on top for a while, being the top 2A/1A player in the state has been a few years in the making for Illingworth. The junior took the No. 2 singles title as a freshman in 2008, then lost to Duchesne's Beau Browning — a two-time state champion — in the No. 1 singles championship match last year.

This year, though, it was all his.

After cruising through the first two rounds, Illingworth found himself facing his polar opposite in Anderson, who is nearly a foot shorter and has a game grounded in movement and defense, not power and aggression.

Waterford's freshman was all over the court early, tracking down shots that seemed certainly out of reach and extending points that should have been over quickly.

View Comments

"Anderson is awesome," Sleeper said. "He has a lot of shots in his bag and played really good defense the first set. We just wanted to keep being aggressive, and Joe executed perfectly. He played one of the best matches I've seen him play this year."

Illingworth finally grabbed the first-set win, 6-4, then overpowered Anderson in the second set 6-2 en route to the state title.

With his own title in the bag, he now has his sights set on matching Browning's feat of two straight championships.

"It's hard when you come so close like I did last year, so it felt really great that I could hold on and pull it off this year," Illingworth said. "I'm going to train hard and go for it again next year, but I'll put that thought off until later and enjoy this for a little bit," he said.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.