ST. GEORGE — In the final high school boys tennis match of the regular season, Desert Hills edged Snow Canyon 3-2 Thursday afternoon to capture the Region 9 title with a region record of 5-1. That same afternoon, Pine View defeated Canyon View 4-1 at Pine View.
Pine View also finished with a 5-1 record in region, but the Desert Hills Thunder had beaten Pine View in their head-to-head match earlier, and were therefore named the region champions.
In Thursday’s showdown at Snow Canyon, the Warriors and Desert Hills entered the deciding match with identical 4-1 records. Snow Canyon won both the first and second singles matches, but Desert Hills captured both doubles matches plus the No. 3 singles match to win the championship.
In No. 1 singles, Snow Canyon senior Josh Sodorff defeated Logan Seegmiller of Desert Hills, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4. In No. 2 singles, Snow Canyon’s Taylor Heinz outdueled Braden Williams of Desert Hills in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.
The No. 3 singles match featured Snow Canyon’s Zach Sodorff against Desert Hills’ Matt Seegmiller, with Seegmiller coming from behind to eventually win both sets in tiebreaker. They are the younger brothers of the athletes that competed in the No. 1 singles match.
“Both the first and third singles matches turned into marathons, with the brothers Sodorff each battling against a Seegmiller,” Snow Canyon coach Joshua Jackson said.
In first doubles, the Desert Hills duo of Josh James and Noah Thompson defeated Snow Canyon’s Austin Meyer and Broden Lund. In second doubles, Jake Hardy and Justin Davidson of Desert Hills defeated Snow Canyon’s Juanchi Rivera and Lucas Jensen.
Snow Canyon’s four senior players – Josh Sodorff, Austin Meyer, Broden Lund, and Juanchi Rivera – were honored before their final home match.
Snow Canyon finished in third place in Region 9 with a 4-2 record, while Dixie and Cedar ended up tied for fourth place with 3-3 records. Hurricane placed sixth at 1-5 and Canyon View was seventh at 0-6.
Although the region team title has already been decided based on the regular season record, individual region champions, in addition to qualifying for state, will be decided at the Region 9 individual tournament May 4-5 at the Tonaquint Tennis Center in St. George.
The state 4A tournament is scheduled for May 10 and 12 at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City.
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