Three-peat: Skyridge girls tennis wins third straight 6A state title
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- Skyridge girls tennis players pose for a photo with the state title trophy after the final day of the 2022 6A state girls tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
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- Skyridge’s Savannah Johnson and Kaia Soerry celebrate after winning their championship match in No. 1 doubles during the final day of the 2022 6A state girls tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
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- Skyridge’s No. 1 Doubles team of Savannah Johnson and Kaia Sperry pose for a photo after winning the state title on the final day of the 2022 6A state girls tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
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- Skyridge’s Lily Broadbent and Naomi Johnson pose for a photo after winning the state title in No. 2 doubles on the final day of the 2022 6A state girls tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
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- Skyridge’s first singles player Bella Armstrong receives her second place medal after the final day of the 2022 6A state girls tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
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- Skyridge’s Andi Armstrong poses for a photo with the silver medal she won in third singles after the final day of the 2022 6A state girls tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
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- Lone Peak’s Haley Frame and Kylie Willardson pose for a photo after placing second in No. 2 doubles on the final day of the 2022 6A state girls tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
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- Lone Peak’s No. 1 doubles team of Mia Black and Sidney Gardner await a serve during the final day of the 2022 6A state girls tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
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- Lone Peak’s Sidney Gardner and Mia Black pose for a photo after placing second in No. 1 doubles on the final day of the 2022 6A state girls tennis tournament at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022.
Skyridge is fast becoming a dynasty in girl tennis as the Falcons claimed their third straight 6A state team title Saturday at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City. Skyridge had two double teams claim state titles to lead the Falcon charge in claiming the gold trophy.
Skyridge scored 56 points to easily outdistance second place Layton, which pointed 40. Farmington was third with 33 points while Utah County schools Lone Peak (29) and American Fork (27) rounded out the top five. Pleasant Grove tied for ninth with nine points.
Both doubles pairings had to take on familiar foes in Lone Peak in the finals.
In first doubles, Skyridge’s Savannah Johnson and Kaia Sperry were tested by Lone Peak’s Sidney Gardner and Mia Black, but the Falcon duo prevailed 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 to win the title. It was the second state title for each player as Johnson, a senior, played first doubles, and Sperry, now a sophomore, played second doubles last year. The two went undefeated this season.
“We were a bit stressed out after losing that second set,” Johnson said. “We just had to regroup and trust our shots.”
As far as their partnership goes, Sperry is the louder one on the court.
“She (Sperry) brings the hype,” Johnson said, while Sperry said of her partner: “She brings everything, she carries me. She has that serve and those volleys when I can’t make my returns.”
Both are grateful to be in the Skyridge program.
“Skyridge is the best school out there,” Sperry said. “It’s so amazing.”
Johnson added: “I’m so proud (to be a part of this program).”
Johnson’s younger sister Naomi Johnson teamed up with senior Lily Broadbent to defeat Lone Peak’s Haley Frame and Kylie Willardson, 6-4, 7-5.
“It’s pretty great, it’s pretty clutch,” Naomi Johnson said. “I’m just happy we pulled it out.”
The two sisters were playing in courts right next to each other and the younger Johnson was aware that her sister’s team had just dropped a set to their rivals.
“They had a really tight match,” Naomi Johnson said. “I didn’t want to go a third set, so I’m glad we did it (won in straight sets).”
For Broadbent, she had to wait her turn until her senior year in a program that is rich in talent and was very happy to be at the state tourney to take home the gold medal.
“It is so amazing,” said Broadbent. “It’s my first year at state and it’s my senior year and I’ve been working really hard for this,” said Broadbent.
Both Naomi Johnson and Broadbent shared strong compliments for each other’s games.
“Naomi is one of the strongest players I’ve ever met. She’s just a sophomore and has a bright, bright, future,” Broadbent said.
“Lily can just get to every ball and it’s insane. I couldn’t ask for a better partner,” Johnson said of Broadbent.
Another key contributor to the Falcon state title run was first singles player Bella Lewis. The Falcon sophomore beat West’s Alexandra Burnett 6-0, 6-2 in the semifinals before losing a 3-set match against top-seeded Anna Frey of Farmington, who is just a freshman. Lewis won the first set 7-5 but then Frey settled in to win the last two sets 6-1, 6-0.
In third singles, Skyridge freshman Andi Strong defeated Farmington’s Hadley Frost 6-2, 7-5 in the semifinals but was stopped in her championship match by Layton’s Tana Christopulos, the top seed, 6-1, 6-2.
In second singles, Falcon junior Kylee Sperry, seeded third and the older sister to Kaia, lost in the semifinals to Layton’s Victoria Cooksey, who ended up being the state champion.
Reflecting on the third state title, Skyridge head coach Ben Armstrong said each of the state titles is challenging and unique.
“They’re all tough but they’re all different too,” said Armstrong. “We had a lot of players coming back (from last year). We only had two spots to fill this year so we knew we had the potential and capability of 3-peating, which is always a tough thing to do.”
Armstrong feels that the championship was won by what his players did in the off-season.
“The girls really worked hard in the off-season and they came in and produced when they needed to produce,” Armstrong stated.
After the first doubles team lost their second set, Armstrong reminded his duo of the work they had put in to get there.
“I just told them to just ‘trust the training,'” Armstrong said. “Champions are made in the off-season so they just needed to trust all the work and effort they put in the off-season and just go out and play.”
Other local players that shined in the weekend tournament were American Fork’s Malia Bishop who made the semifinals before losing to West’s Riya Soneji in the second singles semifinals 6-4, 6-0. Bishop’s teammate Liberty Hardy also made the semifinals in third singles before falling in straight sets to the eventual champion Christopulos in the semifinals in straight sets. American Fork had also had two doubles teams make the semifinals with Calli Condie and Milly Wood in first doubles and Ellie Lind and Claire Griffin in second doubles. Both pairs lost to the eventual runner-ups from Lone Peak.
Note: The Utah High School Activities Association used a new scoring format for the 2022 State Championships. There are five rounds of competition in the tournament, and in the first round winners receive one point, second round winners two points, quarterfinal winners receive three points, semifinal winners four points and then five points to winning players/double teams in the championship finals.
