On September 30 and October 1, the Sage Hill’s Girls’ Varsity Tennis team took second place in the Lightning Invitational. Hosted on the campus tennis courts, this tournament included teams such as Bishop Gorman from Las Vegas, Santa Margarita Catholic School, and Palisades Charter from Los Angeles. Bishop Gorman, a long time attendee, is traditionally one of the strongest teams from Las Vegas, while Palisades Charter has won the previous four Lightning Invitationals. Unexpectedly, Santa Margarita Catholic School finished with close to 200 points, taking first place. Sage Hill won a total of 109 points, edging out both Palisades Charter (99 points) and Bishop Gorman (94 points). 

During the singles matches, the Varsity girls played competitively and a few of them even took home awards. Sage Hill’s singles #1 player, Arden Stobart, reached the semifinals before losing to Santa Margarita’s #1, with a close score of 8 to 6. Later, Arden overcame Santa Margarita’s #3 singles player and received the title of 3rd place. Our #2 singles player, Alexia Beyrath, lost a tight battle to Santa Margarita’s #2 in a tiebreaker, but rallied to win the next three matches to win the consolation bracket. Both the #3 and #4 singles players, Ella Wong and Abigail Wang, came through with crucial wins for the team. Ella eventually lost in a close match against her teammate, Alexia.

The doubles matches were equally demanding, and all of the teams were very evenly matched. The #1 doubles team, Kana Byrd and Ava Herin, reached the semifinals, winning three out of four of their matches. They received 3rd place as well, and their coach reported that they “played the best they had all season over the weekend attacking the net as a team”. On Friday evening, both #2 (Eva Ro and Lauren Chung) and #3 (Sunny Sun and Joy Qu) doubles teams worked for incredible wins against Santa Margarita, and the #4 doubles team, Ceyda Shamsai and Madeleine Carroll, pulled through against Santa Margarita’s players on Saturday morning to take the win.

The Sage Hill’s Girls Varsity Tennis team’s performance in this rigorous tournament went above and beyond, and team morale is higher than ever!