After starting the season 3-0 with clean 9-0 wins in each match, Sedona Red Rock High School’s girls tennis team knew that, as good as the start was, the next two matches would be far bigger tests. The Scorpions ended up passing both.
The first test came on Thursday, April 1, when SRRHS hosted Anthem Prep. The Eagles took an early lead on the afternoon, winning two of the three doubles matches, with the Sedona duo of sophomore Kaitlyn Otterlee and senior Izzy Constante supplying the only win. That put the Scorpions in a position where they had to win the majority of the six singles matches to pull out the match.
Four of the six were decided in straight sets. Three of those went to Sedona, with No. 2 player Rina Sato [6-4, 6-1], No. 5 player Constante [6-2, 6-2] and No. 6 Joseline Arizmendi [6-0, 6-0] all posting wins. No. 3 Jillian Grondin and No. 4 Natalie Arizmendi both had their matches go into a third set, with SRRHS needing a win from one of those two to secure a match victory.
While Anthem’s Genevieve Wadsworth pulled out a 3-6, 6-3, 10-7 win over Arizmendi, Grondin was victorious over Isabelle Widener in the third set, securing a 3-6, 6-1, 10-6 victory for herself and a 5-4 win for the team.
That set the Scorpions up with a matchup against another unbeaten team, BASIS Flagstaff, on Monday, April 5.
The match started off similar to the one with Anthem Prep, with Otterlee and Constante being the only Sedona team to win its doubles match. But as they had done against the Eagles, the Scorpions made up for it in singles against the Yeti.
BASIS’ No. 1 player, Aeliana Ricci, defeated her SRRHS counterpart, senior Sofia Zimmerman 6-3, 6-1, but the Scorpions were otherwise perfect in singles.
Sato won her match 6-3, 6-0, Grondin posted a 7-5, 6-3 victory, Arizmendi [Natalie] was again pushed to a third set, but came away with a better result, winning 6-4, 1-6, 10-8. Constante and Arizmendi won their matches 6-2, 6-1 and 6-0, 6-1, respectively, to help secure a 6-3 win for the team, moving Sedona to 5-0 on the season.
The Scorpions won again on Tuesday, April 6, beating Northland Prep Academy 9-0 on the road. They saw BASIS Flagstaff for the second time in a week on Thursday, April 8 and had a similar result, winning 6-3.
That gives Sedona a nearly insurmountable lead atop the Division III, Section VI standings. The Scorpions are 7-0 while every other team has at least two losses.
The Scorpions were ranked No. 4 in Division III heading into that match, behind only Scottsdale Prep, Pusch Ridge and Thatcher.
Following the match with BASIS Flagstaff, Sedona will wrap up the season with three more road matches. They’ll be at Page on Tuesday, April 13, Kingman on Thursday, April 15, and Anthem Prep on Tuesday, April 20. The season finale will start at 2 p.m. All other matches will start at 3 p.m.
