I purposely scheduled a pretty difficult, grueling non-region schedule against probably some of the best teams in the state to prepare for this tournament. The girls, it helped them a lot. – Roger Baumgartner
For the past six years, either Lone Peak or Davis have won at least a share of the 5A (now 6A) girls’ state tennis championship, and that trend looks to continue in 2017 edition of the 6A girls tennis state championship.
“I think when other teams look at the competition in 6A this year, if you look back at who’s come out on top in the past six years, Davis and Lone Peak have been taking turns — second place, first place, second place, first play,” Davis head coach Andy Wahlstrom said. “I think we carry that target together, Lone Peak and Davis.”
While Lone Peak and Davis are the favorites to take home the trophy going into the tournament, the rest of a talented 6A field will have a shot, too.
“With everything with the realignment, we’re just excited to go up there and see how we stack up. There’s going to be some really good teams. I think Davis is going to be strong, as usual, and then we’ve got some new teams in the classification,” Lone Peak head coach Roger Baumgartner said. “Our region, I think, is a little underrated too. I think our region will surprise some people this week. I don’t see us as the favorite so much as everyone is going up there. Let’s see what this new realignment brings us.”
Both Lone Peak and Davis got some preparation for the toughness of state play with their preseason and region schedules.
“I purposely scheduled a pretty difficult, grueling non-region schedule against probably some of the best teams in the state to prepare for this tournament. The girls, it helped them a lot. What we’ve done is try to schedule teams that will most emulate what we’re going to go up against at state,” Baumgartner said.
Wahlstrom did the same thing, scheduling tough matchups to prepare his players for the state tournament.
“In the preseason, I get them ready, I choose the teams I know are going to be good. We played a dual match against Ridgeline this year, we played Desert Hills, down in the Saint George tournament, and beat them, and they both tied for second in their classification, so we’ve had some good dual matches with some stiff competition,” Wahlstrom said.
Davis’ Mackenzie Turley comes in as the favorite to win first singles, as she won the second singles title in 2016 as a freshman. Mackenzie will be filling in sister Whitney’s shoes, as Whitney won the first singles title last year. Abbie Dana comes in as Region 1's No. 1 seed in second singles, and Annecy Hansen claims the top seed in third singles. Davis won championships in first, second and third singles in 2016, and will be trying to repeat that in 2017.
For Lone Peak, Daniela Aaron, who reached the first singles final as a freshman, is back and holds the top Region 4 spot. The Knights won both first and second doubles championships in 2016, and Katie King, one half of the duo that won the second singles title, and Cami Gricius, who won the first doubles titled last year will try and claim the first doubles crown.