High school tennis: Miles closes out undefeated run; Desert Hills wins

PROVO — Paige Miles wrapped up an undefeated high school career with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Park City's Ali McMahon at the 3A state tennis tournament championships Saturday afternoon.

She's won four straight singles titles and waltzed through her final two matches despite the pressure of trying to finish her 72-0 career undefeated.

"Ali came out on fire and won the first two games, so that made me a little nervous," said Miles, who added, "It felt good going out with a bang."

After losing those two games to the highly touted McMahon, who is herself a hard solid hitter that scares most of the competition at any level, Miles turned right around, settled herself and finished off her final high school match by winning the last 12 games straight.

Her anticipation, movement, mental strength and consistency combine with the power and placement to make her one of the toughest players to ever go through the Utah high school ranks. Miles currently is being courted by colleges and universities across the nation and still hasn't made up her mind where she'd like to play tennis and go to school.

But she has turned down Marquette and Depaul and is considering other offers and visit opportunities.

Miles' toughest match of the tournament came against her very good friend Markelle Mancini from Judge Memorial, who actually took five games off Miles in the 6-4, 6-1 match.

"In my match with Markelle I was pretty nervous," admitted Miles, who is known for playing strong and not letting nerves become her enemy. Her coaches all talk about how when Miles makes a mistake, she doesn't make the same one again.

But, though Miles gave Juan Diego the title in the glamour position of first singles, it was Desert Hills that swept the rest of the final matches, coming away with four individual titles and the team title, defeating Park City 26 points to 18.

"If you want to know how we sweep all the other titles, it's because Morgan Anderson is at the top," said Desert Hills coach Dow Christensen about his tough team that dominated in every division except first singles.