With all positions for both Tooele and Stansbury girls tennis team needing to escape the first round of divisionals just for the opportunity to get to double-elimination, the path to state wasn’t going to be easy on Friday and Saturday at Ogden High School and Mount Ogden Park in Ogden.

Only two doubles teams from the county won their first round match on Friday and had aspirations of qualifying out of the Region 5 and 6 divisionals. Stansbury’s first doubles duo of Autumn Neumann and Melissa Fillmore won their first round match along with Tooele’s second doubles tandem of Alyssa Gamble and Carlee Bunn.

Unfortunately for both doubles teams, they lost two consecutive matches after that pitted them into a seventh-eighth place match where the winner qualifies for state and the loser goes home Saturday.

In their seventh place match, Stansbury’s Neumann and Fillmore faced off with Shanna Reusser and Brooke Carlsen from Mountain Crest. The first set couldn’t have been more exciting as it went into a tiebreaker but the Mountain Crest duo took the first set.

Neumann and Fillmore recovered in a major way in the second set when they took control by winning 6-2 to force a third and decisive set. The third set could have gone either way also and was extremely close but Mountain Crest came out on top and qualified for state with a 6-4 win in the third set.

For Tooele’s second doubles it was Highland’s Brooke Blaisdell and Alicia Warne that stood in the way of Gamble and Bunn qualifying for state. The first set didn’t start out so well for the Tooele duo as they lost 1-6 but did make a recovery in the second set.

Unfortunately for Gamble and Bunn, they made the second set closer but still lost 5-7 to eliminate them from state contention.

Gamble and Bunn started out their divisionals with a big win in straight sets Friday over Breanna Panter and Tula Bournakis from Bonneville 6-4, 6-4. After the win, they had to face the Bountiful doubles team of Kelsee Guerts and Katrina Hunt who had a bye in the first round. The Bountiful duo won in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 sending Gamble and Bunn to the consolation bracket.

Divisionals for the Stansbury’s Neumann and Fillmore started out a little rough because they dropped the first set to Logan’s Lexi Benson and Chloe Kirkman 4-6. In an extremely tight match, Neumann and Fillmore fought back to win the second set 6-4.

The third set couldn’t have gotten much tighter as Neumann and Fillmore forced a tiebreaker but trailed 2-5 early in that tiebreaker. The Stansbury duo fought back to rattle off five consecutive points to advance out of the first round.

After that grueling match, Neumann and Fillmore had to face Sky View’s Niccole Hanks and Bekka Wallentine and lost in straight sets 1-6, 4-6. The Stansbury tandem did put up more of a fight in the consolation bracket when they took the first set 6-4 over Highland’s Lauren Kirch and Laura Haug. Highland did recover and wound up taking the final two sets 6-2, 6-0 to advance.

Aside from the Stansbury first doubles and Tooele second doubles it was too difficult a task to get out of the first round but that didn’t stop players from both schools from trying.

At first singles, Stansbury’s Paige Dimond faced off against Mary Kate Johnson from Mountain Crest and made the first set close. Johnson took the first set 6-3 and then cruised in the second 6-1. For Tooele first singles, Megan Bresee fought hard against Hannah Phillips but fell in straight sets 2-6, 2-6.

Stansbury’s Kylee Harris ran into a powerful Jazmyn Maiden of Sky View and found it difficult to keep up with her ground strokes as Maiden took the match 6-1, 6-0.

At Tooele third singles, Shellie Christensen ran into a matchup with Wendy Tran from Logan. Tran proved to be too much as she won in straight sets 6-2, 6-1.

The first doubles team of Abby Iorg and Madalyn Nelson from Tooele ran into a buzzsaw of a team, Emily Steele and Nicole Anjewierden from Ogden. The Ogden duo didn’t even allow a game in a 6-0, 6-0 victory.

Second doubles for Stansbury also ran into a tough team from Ogden. Meredith Tribe and Lara Greenleigh ran away from Stansbury’s Charlotte Rugg and Krista Huffaker. Ogden won 6-0, 6-0 to advance.

Not qualifying anyone for state effectively ends the season for both Tooele and Stansbury girls tennis. Tooele coach Terry Weddle knows that he only loses one senior from the varsity squad so will almost have the entire team back next year. “I enjoyed the girls this year and liked having Milo Berry help me out with the team,” Weddle said. “I think next year we will form more of an identity as a team and come out stronger.”

Jake Gordon: jgordon@tooeletranscript.com