Hillcrest High opened its season with a dominant 5-0 win over Alta High, sweeping all three singles matches and both doubles sets. The performance reinforced the Huskies’ status as the favorite to win their region and make a strong run at the state title.

“We're going to do very well,” head coach Creighton Chun said. “We're a solid team; we have some JV girls who could play varsity.”

Leading the team is sophomore Luciana Gonzalez, last year’s 4A state champion at No. 2 Singles.

“Luci is playing well; she played summer UTSA tournaments and usually made it to the semis,” he said, adding she played up an age group so it would be more challenging to her.

At No. 2 Singles this year is freshman Joshya Yerrapureddy.

“I knew she was coming in and expected her to be a strong member for our team,” he said.

Sophomore Nivedita Bakshi returns to the No. 3 Singles spot after last season being the No. 3 Singles state runner-up champion.

“She found her niche in that spot,” Chun said. “It’s also saying how strong our singles are still going to be with my third singles from that team last year still at third singles this season.”

The doubles lineups include sophomore Krithika Karthikeyan and freshman Junee Ngo as the top team, and junior Ameera Al-Sweedy paired with senior Ava Booker on the second team. Also contending for varsity playing time are juniors Siah Kim and Lila Vawdrey, along with freshmen Bella Manuel and Parisha Khakural.

“We have a lot of depth so it will be hard for a region team to challenge us,” Chun said. “I’ve had players improve a lot, like Krithika, and I have players who are natural athletes, like Junee, who will make an impact in their first year on the team.”

To prepare for a state title push, Chun scheduled a challenging preseason lineup.

Hillcrest will face several strong programs, including Brighton, Skyline, and Orem — which Chun described as “they’re probably a top 5 team” — along with Green Canyon, last year’s 4A state champions. Hillcrest finished as 4A state runner-up, and also had the No. 1 singles champion, Fabi Gonzalez, who has since graduated and is playing college tennis.

Chun expects some challenging individual matchups throughout the season, including Granger High’s top singles player, Samantha Salea, who also is in Hillcrest’s new 5A Region 4.

The 5A state tournament opens Oct. 4 at Brighton High, with subsequent rounds on Oct. 9 and 11 at Liberty Park. The region tournament will be held Sept. 24–25 at West Jordan High, with varsity, JV, and alternates (players ranked No. 15 and higher) all participating. Hillcrest currently has 30 players on its roster.