Miners cruise to Region 3 tennis crown

KEARNS — Bingham only returned two of its seven varsity tennis players from last year's Region 3 championship team, making some wonder if the Miners could defend their title this fall.

"I thought we'd be in trouble," admitted Bingham coach Dave Davis.

Turns out, it was the rest of the region that was in trouble. The Miners won four of five events last Thursday to claim their second-straight Region 3 girls tennis championship at Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center.

The 5A tournament is up next for the top four players and teams from each category. The state competition takes place Thursday and Saturday at Liberty Park. Davis said he hopes his team can pull off a top-five finish in the tough tourney. At the very least, Bingham wants to crack the top eight so the girls tennis team can contribute All-Sports points.

The only player who had as good of a day as Bingham was Hunter's Nittaya Phonharath, who won first singles as a freshman. Other than her, though, the Region 3 tourney belonged to the Miners.

"It was really nice to see the way the team came together," Davis said.

More trouble appears to be on the horizon for the west-side league thanks to Bingham. The Miners, who've won six region titles during Davis' 17-year coaching career, look like they'll be favored to threepeat next fall as they only lose one senior.

The Miners also swept the doubles categories to pick up big points at region. They finished first with 67 points, outdistancing runner-up West Jordan (52), Riverton (34), Hunter (28), Kearns (17) and Copper Hills (7).

A key for Bingham's win was the dedication the girls showed while fine-tuning and tweaking their strokes in the offseason. That helped them overcome the varsity inexperience.

"Some went and worked hard and transformed their game," Davis said.

The most notable turnaround came from third singles champion Shauna Park, who beat West Jordan's Caitlyn Jensen 6-2, 6-3 in the finals. The incredible part: Park didn't even know how to play tennis until about a year ago. A summer tennis program really helped boost her skill level.

"It's phenomenal how quickly she picked it up," Davis said.