There was only one upset in the first round of the Boy’s Division II state tournament with No. 12 Ironwood taking out No. 5 Cibola 5-1. All the other matches played out according to seed, setting up a highly contested quarterfinal round on Tuesday, May 3.
The first round of the singles and doubles competition for all three divisions begins this Friday, April 22, at various sites in the Phoenix area. Here are the top seeds from Southern Arizona for each division plus some notes:
A rivalry in name only, Ironwood Ridge has grown accustomed to beating Canyon del Oro during singles play but the Dorados forced the Nighthawks to doubles where the Nighthawks ultimately pulled out a slim 5-4 win on Thursday.
Catalina Foothills swept Salpointe Monday in an important Division II girl's tennis match heading into the first power rankings of the season to be released on Wednesday. The Falcons are 6-0 overall and 3-0 in Section VII while the Lancers fell to 6-1 and 2-1.
Canyon del Oro defeated Amphitheater 7-2 late Friday night to close out a match that was much closer than the score indicated. The Panthers (2-2) forced CDO (5-1) to the limit on a few singles matches and then played them into the setting sun with three hotly contested doubles matches.
The Catalina Foothills boy's tennis team has won 10 state team titles dating back to 1997. It's an incredible run that includes a trip to the final every year since 2005 except for 2012 and 2013. Even then, the Falcons picked things back up and won the last two Division II team championships.