The Flagstaff Eagles girls tennis team ended its regular season with an undefeated 14-0 record for the first time in school history after defeating a hobbled Deer Valley squad 9-0, Tuesday, at Thorpe Park.
Coach Steve Boadway was encouraged by the Eagles' play, finishing the best regular season he's had as a coach, and he alluded to the fact that his team is only going to get better because everyone but one player, senior Trinity Harris, is returning next season.
“We’re getting everybody back on the starting varsity lineup,” Boadway said. “If we don’t improve, that'd be on the coach and on the players. The growth should be immense, just doing the things that we do.”
Only three players were available for the Skyhawks, so only three singles matches and one doubles match were completed. The rest were forfeits in Flagstaff's favor.
Because of the circumstances, Broadway brought some of the usual JV players and a couple freshmen up for the varsity contest.
Lynneah Birdno and Marisol Ruiz Bergner, both freshmen, played the doubles match and bested Deer Valley’s duo 8-2.
Harris finished her regular-season career as an Eagle with a 6-4, 6-0 singles win against Deer Valley’s Maggiie Mitchell.
Broadway recognized his senior’s contributions to both the tennis program and Flagstaff High School over her career and applauded her for being a great student overall.
“She’s one of the representatives with us for the school district, with the Flagstaff High School’s Assault Member,” Broadway said. “We really appreciate her representing us really well and we just like her kindness and her character on the team.”
Juniors Josie Shinkle and Rachel Parker bested their opponents, 6-0, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-1, respectively, en route to Flagstaff’s victory.
Parker was pleased with the way her match turned out to end the season, and was excited to make it to the state tournament.
“We’re looking forward to pushing ourselves,” Parker said. “We know we can do it and we’ve gotten this far to not push ourselves to go further.”
Having won Section Two outright with a mark of 7-0, Flagstaff gets a chance to host a playoff match, and potentially two if the bracket works in its favor. The Eagles will likely be a top-four team in 4A, joining the likes of AZ College Prep, Salpointe and Paradise Valley.
Boadway made it a point, though, that the team was approaching the playoffs one game at a time and with careful detail.
“One more step, one match at a time. We’re gonna prepare for this for a week, and we’ll see what we put together.” he said.
The first round of the Division II state tournament is set to begin on April 23, with seeds and locations to be determined later.
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