Orem sisters overwhelm tennis tourney opponents

The Best of the Best tackled each other on the tennis courts Friday afternoon, with a couple of Craigs snaring a little more hardware in the process.

It was all Orem's Callie Craig in both of her matches against Rowland Hall's Blake Harries and Ogden's Tori Arneson as the 4A first singles state champion lost only three games in her two matches en route to the Best of the Best championship.

"I just went out and had fun, just letting myself believe it's not about who wins or loses," said Craig after the pair of matches that really gave her no trouble at all.

Craig played Ogden's Arneson in the final after Arneson and Judge Memorial's Mikkelle Mancini played the best match of the tournament in the semifinals. The marathon match went three sets and to the limit in the third as Arneson finally outlasted Mancini 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2). Both girls turned around a few minutes later in battles for first and third places.

"It's usually pretty close when we play. We haven't played for a while, but we practice against each other a lot. I just tried to concentrate on getting serves in and going for shots when they came," said Arneson during her short break between matches.

But she didn't have many holes to take advantage of when she took on Craig in the final as the sophomore returned some pretty amazing shots, using her killer instinct, powerful strokes and efficient style to finish Arneson off for the title, 6-0, 6-2.

"I surprised myself getting some of those shots back. I was in the zone today. I love it when I play well," said Craig, who is also involved in the Monster Mash tournament this week, so far winning all matches in both the 16s and 18s singles in that tournament.

However, Craig and some others were disappointed that many of the top players in the state didn't show up to the tournament for various reasons.

Those top players missing in the first singles bracket include 5A champion MaryAnne MacFarlane of Weber and 3A champion Romina Nedakovic of Juan Diego, who won the Best of the Best last year and is widely considered the top player in the state.

"I wanted to play them so bad. I was looking forward to it, but maybe some other time," Craig noted.

Craig's twin sister Kelsie snared the second singles title with wins over up-and-comer Sonja Radosevic and Cottonwood's Vanesa Williamson, but she too was a little disappointed that she wouldn't have the opportunity to play missing 5A champ Ashley Tanner of Alta and 3A champ Paige Miles of Juan Diego.