For Annie Woodward, this season was her last chance to improve on last year’s showing at the 4A state tournament at Salt Lake City’s Liberty Park. 

The Cottonwood senior reached the Round of 16 in 2024 as that tourney’s No. 13 seed in first singles. 

Woodward again qualified for state this year on the strength of a 2-5 record in Region 10 play. On Aug. 26, she defeated a rival in Murray’s Heidi Richardson 6-3 and 5-3 and then on Sept. 4 she knocked off Annabelle Webster of Jordan 6-1, 6-1. 

But at the Region 10 tournament, Woodward was knocked out early by Mara Johncock of Judge Memorial 0-6 and 2-6, sending her, a three-year starter in first singles, into the 2025 state tournament as an unseeded player. 

It was the first time in her four years at the school that Woodward found herself unseeded at state. How did she respond to that? 

Strong, as a matter of fact. Woodward took on No. 16 Pearle Lindquist of Dixie in the first round Oct. 2. In her last state tournament, the Colt repped CHS well, playing Lindquist to 6-6 before the Dixie Flyer pulled away to win the first set tiebreaker and hand the Cottonwood senior a 5-7 defeat. 

Woodward simply ran out of gas in the second set, and fell 6-7 (5-7) and 3-6. The first-round loss closed out Woodward’s career a little earlier than anyone would have expected, and yet there was so much to love about her in her four years. 

To go 5-1 in region in first doubles as a freshman is something the Cottonwood senior can carry with her forever, and so will the fact that Woodward moved up from second singles in her sophomore year to first singles as a junior, having such a level of success. 

For Carley Caton, she has only played on Cottonwood’s tennis team for two years. But, the senior shined as a junior, going 5-4 overall as she worked her way up to second doubles during the season based on results she had in third and second singles for the Colts. 

After playing one match in third singles this season, Caton joined sophomore Bayla Linscott on second doubles in early September. In their first match together, the duo blasted a team from Judge Memorial 6-1 and 6-3 Sept. 2. 

On Sept. 4, the streak continued as Caton and Linscott thumped a team from Jordan 6-1 and 6-1. Then they pulled off a huge upset Sept. 8, knocking off a team from 6A Riverton, 6-1 and 6-4. 

Armed with Caton’s athleticism – she is a starter on the Colts basketball team – and Linscott’s tennis smarts and technical abilities, Cottonwood’s first doubles team did fall to a top-ranked team from Highland Sept. 9. 

But, they gave a team from East all they could handle Sept. 11 before falling 1-6, 6-3 and 2-6. 

In round one of the Region 10 Tournament Sept. 18, Caton and Linscott stunned a team from Park City 6-1, 4-6 and 6-4. In the second round, they drew the same team from East in which they had that epic three-set battle. 

But, the same team from Highland that the Colts duo lost to met Cottonwood in the semifinals and defeated Caton and Linscott in straight sets, 6-0 and 6-1. 

In the first round of the state tournament at Liberty Park, Caton and Linscott lost to Shae Broadwater and Rachel Hafen Crimson Cliffs by the score of 3-6, 4-6.