Judge Memorial CHS tennis duo claims state victory after undefeated season

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SALT LAKE CITY — Judge Memorial Catholic High School’s second doubles tennis team of Emma Evensen and Sophia Valles tore up the court this season, finishing 12-0 and taking state in 3A play.

The pair, both sophomores, was second seed going into the state tournament, held Oct. 6-7 at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City. In the quarterfinals the Bulldog team defeated a Rowland Hall duo, Elle Prasthofer and Isabelle Bown, 6-0, 6-0. Advancing to the semi-finals, they beat the Juab pair of Emmy Fechner and Lily Fechner 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

In the state finals game against Morgan’s Isabella Dickman and Carys Morgan, Evensen and Valles got off to a great start initially, taking the first set 6-1.

“They were just rolling,” JMCHS coach Tracey Valentine said. “They are a really good combo: Emma has strong serves and Sophie really has strong net play, so they were just tearing it up the way they have all season long.”

In the second set of the finals, the pair fell behind, getting down to 4-1 before rallying. They came back to a 6-6 score before clinching the match with a 7-6 score in the tiebreaker.  

Even prior to taking this year’s state championship, Evensen and Valles had strong tennis careers at Judge. Last year, as freshmen, they made it to the state semifinals before losing to a Rowland Hall team.

Valentine sees a great season for both players next year. “We are looking for them to be more leaders on the team after they’ve had all this great experience at state and region tournaments, and to help the younger players,” she said.

Other Judge players also performed well at state. The first doubles team of senior Taeyada Vacharonte and freshman Olivia Lee defeated Morgan’s Willa Anderson and Kaitlyn Carter 6-4,6-2. In the semifinals, they fell to the Juab High School pairing of Emmy Lovell and Hannah Echols, 6-2, 6-0.

“Tae and Olivia were fantastic,” Valentine said. “Tae had been a singles player for her previous two seasons. We just thought we would try Tae at doubles to take advantage of her strengths and minimize her weaknesses a little bit, and it worked out fantastic. Those two are very smart players, could adjust their game and they had a really good season.”

With the contributions of its two doubles pairs, along with a semifinal finish for second singles senior Audrey Selfridge and a quarterfinal finish for sophomore Avery Kaleel, Judge ended the season third overall.  

“We had a really good run this year,” Valentine said.