The Grand County High School girls tennis team dominated at home last week in the first region match of the Lady Devils’ season. On Tuesday, Aug. 28, Grand trounced Parowan and Millard in every event of the day.

The Lady Devils had their first match against the Parowan Lady Rams. In a knockout performance, Grand swept every event to win the contest by the score of 5-0.

In No. 1 singles, senior Brianna Ballard cleanly won in two sets, 6-1, 6-3. GCHS senior Torrie Lopez had an even stronger showing in the No. 2 singles slot, crushing her opponent 6-0, 6-0. Freshman Kayla Weston won the No. 3 singles division, dominating her opponent, 6-1, 6-0.

The Lady Devils also continued to rack up wins in the doubles division. No. 1 doubles team Jacey Johnson and Brityn Ballard won their first set 6-1 but faltered in the second, losing that set 5-7. But they came back in the third set to win 10-6. In the No. 2 doubles slot, juniors Madi Stocks and Shalia Harmison sailed through to victory, winning both sets by the score of 6-1 and giving Grand a clean sweep victory over the Lady Rams.

Later that same day, the Lady Devils repeated their strong performance, preying on the Millard Lady Eagles in another 5-0 victory.

Ballard continued her winning streak to beat her No. 1 singles opponent, 6-0, 6-0, while Lopez followed suit and won in the No. 2 singles division, 6-0, 6-1. Weston fared even better than Lopez in the No. 3 singles slot, beating her opponent 6-0, 6-0 to sweep the singles competition for Grand.

In doubles, Johnson and Ballard had another successful match, winning both sets 6-0, while Stocks and freshman Robin Wilscheidt repeated the feat in the No. 2 doubles matchup, winning both of their sets 6-0. Harmison and sophomore Cassidy Walker played doubles in the only junior varsity match of the day, winning 3-1 against the Lady Eagles.

“I think this speaks well for the rest of the season,” said head coach Brian Ballard. “I mean, we have some much stronger matches ahead of us this season, but we’ve got a confident team with some good confident players. The girls are starting to move into their positions and are really learning how to play. We’ve got some impressive players; some very good players.”

However, Ballard said he does not expect the rest of the season to go so easily, as the Lady Devils are lined up to play some formidable teams in their region in the coming weeks.

“I think we have some very challenging teams lined up, so we’ll have to see how that goes. However, all of our players are just great and I think we have a good upcoming team as well,” Ballard said. “We not only have the seven or eight varsity players, but we have some really good JV players as well. We have a lot of hope for this year, but for next year too – like never before.”

The Lady Devils will next play away at Richfield and South Sevier on Thursday, Sept. 6, before traveling to Emery and Gunnison and Tuesday, Sept. 11. Grand’s next home match will be on Thursday, Sept. 13 against San Juan. Grand is also scheduled to play San Juan in a junior varsity tournament on Friday, Sept. 14. Both matches will begin at 3 p.m.