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Home > Archive > Oct 5, 2006

By Andrew Spear
Sports Writer
It was a beautiful day at Tonaquint Park on Friday, Sept. 29, where the crowd was able to relax, get some sun, and enjoy some great Region 9 tennis matchups.

There were very few surprises at the tournament, where Pine View took top honors in four of the five brackets. Melissa Cowles led the way for the Panthers by cruising through the tournament with almost flawless play. She easily won her final match 6 – 0, 6 –0 against Dixie’s Alexis Hildebrandt.

Snow Canyon’s Shanon Southwick broke up Pineview’s region sweep by defeating Hilary Heideman, 6 – 2, 6 – 3. Southwick and Heideman had split their previous two matches this season.

The Flyers also had a strong showing by grabbing three second-place finishes to go along with two third-place honors. Dixie was headed by the tough play of Lauren Beck and Kaytee Clayton, who narrowly missed a first-place finish, being defeated 2 – 6, 6 – 3, 7 –5 by Pine View’s Lauren Wright and Nicole Ford.

Dixie, Pine View, and Snow Canyon will all be taking seven players to the state tournament next weekend, while the Tigers will proudly take six, which is the most ever qualified by Hurricane. All of Hurricane’s qualifiers will enter the state tournament as the fourth seed.
Cedar’s Laura Correy came in an underdog but was able to win her first match and become the team’s only qualified player this year. She will be seeded fourth after she was defeated by Dixie’s Afton Staheli, 6 – 0, 6 – 0. Canyon View was shut out and will be unable to send anyone to state.

The state tournament will take place October 6 and 7 at BYU.

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