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This year, the NS girls tennis team managed to take second in region.
“I was really proud of the girls this season,” tennis coach Matt Braithwaite said. “They’ve performed so well all season and to see them take second place overall in the region, especially with some tough competition, was really nice to see.”
Nobody on the varsity team took less than third place, with one third place, three second places, and two first place finishes.
“I ended up taking second in region,” second singles Bella Lewis said. “I lost to Juab in the finals, but it was a super close match and Juab ended first overall in region, so I thought I did pretty well.”
All varsity players for NS qualified for the upcoming state tournament held at Liberty Park in the Salt Lake area.
“We had a play-in actually just this last Saturday for all of our singles players to see if they would make it to state,” Braithwaite said. “All of them won their matches and are now in the state tournament. I’m really excited that we have our full girls team actually going because many years we usually don’t have everyone qualify for state.”
Every girl this year qualified for state under a new tennis ranking for 3A schools. That ranking is called UTR or the Universal Tennis Rating. The Universal tennis rating is what controls wins and losses on the season for players, and how close their matches were.
“Basically, UTR is just like any other system,” Braithwaite said. “It takes the top eight players, and they get byes into the first round of state. The others all have to make it to state. I like this system because it shows your real tennis rating and how good someone is. Even if you lose, your rating could still go up if you played well against an opponent who may have a way higher rating than you. Wins and losses matter still, but now they matter less.”
With those wins and losses mattering less, we now have all girls into the state tournament, with both doubles teams receiving a bye the first round, and all three singles playing a first round matchup.
“I’m really excited, but also really nervous,” first singles Abri Benson said. “I think it will definitely be an exciting experience for me, but at the same time I’m worried about losing out in the first round. I just hope I can do my best for our team and that we will compete well. I’m happy that we all made it this far and all made it to state.”
