The fifth-place, 11-point finish Lehi High School posted at the Fourth Annual Westlake Open on Aug. 28 and 29 is less a surprise result than a snapshot of where Pioneer girls tennis actually sits: competitive in mixed-classification fields, still hunting a 6A breakthrough, and now in the first season of a coaching change that Athletic Director Quincy Lewis framed as a staff-and-culture hire rather than a rebuild.
Those 11 points at Westlake High School in Saratoga Springs matched Lehi's entire 6A state total from Oct. 2, 2025, when the Pioneers tied Mountain Ridge and Davis for seventh with 11 points and sent three brackets to the quarterfinals at Liberty Park. Lone Peak won that 6A team title with 61 points, followed by American Fork (43), Skyridge (40), Bingham (28) and Corner Canyon (21).
A new coach, and a 38-year title drought
Lewis announced Glen Zobell's appointment as head girls tennis coach in February 2026, citing a coach already on the Lehi faculty. "We are very excited to find a person with Coach Zobell's qualifications on our existing school staff," Lewis said. "Coach Zobell brings with him an impressive background and level of success as a coach and player. His vision for the program matches our expectations at Lehi."
Zobell teaches biology, including AP and CTE courses, and arrived at Lehi in 2022 after eight years on the Timpanogos High School faculty in Orem. He and his wife, Kandace, played tennis for the Timberwolves; he later played club tennis at Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University, still competes in USTA 4.5 men's doubles, has taught private and group lessons since 2009, and coached at Timpanogos for 10 years. The UHSAA now lists him as Lehi's girls tennis coach; the Pioneers compete in Class 6A, Region 3, out of 180 North 500 East in Lehi.
"I love the Lehi Community and am happy to give back in such a special way," Zobell said at the time of his hire. "In addition to the wonderful program that has been established here, I hope to show the students how positive an impact tennis will have on their current and future lives." He said the core of his approach would be "mastery of the basic skills of the sport and building upon them in order to achieve success."
Lewis, who holds the Utah record with nine boys basketball state titles and is the only Utah coach in the Naismith High School Hall of Fame, has been Lehi's full-time athletic director since April 2024.
The program he hired Zobell to run has not won a UHSAA girls tennis team championship since 1988. Official records credit Lehi with 2A titles in 1987 and 1988 under coach Tracy Wilson, the second of those shared with Grantsville. Wilson is listed with two girls tennis championships, 1987 and 1988. Individual two-time state winners from that era include Lisa Mackay (1986 and 1987 first singles), Kristin Felix (1987 second singles, 1988 first singles) and Eliesa Wilson (1987 third singles, 1988 second singles).
Grantsville, Lehi's 1988 co-champion, won the 14-team Westlake Open this year with 21 points.
The 6A climb, and who is left to make it
Lehi's first 6A season, in 2023, produced seven state points — then described as the program's highest total since moving into the largest classification — with sophomore Sadie DeSpain reaching the first-singles quarterfinals. Freshman Liberty Salcido won the Region 3 No. 4 singles title that same postseason.
In 2024 the Pioneers nearly doubled that output, scoring 13 points and finishing eighth, three points from fourth, with four of five state entries reaching the quarterfinals on Oct. 10 at Liberty Park. DeSpain, then a junior and the No. 6 first-singles seed, won her round of 16.
The 2025 team entered the Region 3 tournament as the fifth seed and finished fourth at Corner Canyon High School in Draper on Sept. 18 and 19, beating the host Chargers 4-3 before falling 7-0 to eventual champion Lone Peak and being swept by American Fork in the third-place match. Then-coach Christina Bowman pointed to Kinley Olson's "great resolve" at third singles and called Breckyn Holindrake and Claire Thatcher "our winningest doubles team," adding, "We look forward to watching their success soar next year."
At 6A state on Oct. 2, 2025, DeSpain (No. 5 seed, first singles) and Olson (No. 7, third singles) both reached the quarterfinals; Holindrake and Thatcher, the No. 8 second-doubles seed, beat Westlake in the round of 16 before drawing Lone Peak's top seeds. Bowman said seniors DeSpain and Ryah Nielson had shown "four years of amazing growth." Both have now graduated.
What remains is a Zobell lineup built around players who already own 6A state reps. Senior Ella Gonzalez, the No. 10 second-singles seed in 2025, played first singles at the Westlake Open. Junior Olson, last year's third-singles quarterfinalist, played second singles there. Junior Thatcher again medaled in first doubles, this time with Holindrake; senior Abigail Cox, who Bowman noted in 2025 had come off the development team into the last varsity singles slot, medaled in second doubles with sophomore Sahasya Sandepogu.
Zobell's first event as head coach was the inaugural Lehi Ladies Open on Aug. 7 and 8, a six-team round-robin the Pioneers hosted and won on the tiebreaker after finishing 3-1 alongside Alta and Westlake. Lehi took 29 sets to Westlake's 28 and Alta's 27. "We've got some new and old faces on the team this year and we're excited with the unity we have so far," Zobell said then. "We missed a couple of varsity players for these matches and are excited to see them in action over the next few weeks."
Region 3 play has already shown the gap to the league's top tier. Skyridge beat Lehi 7-0 in Lehi on Aug. 18 and 5-2 in Lehi on Aug. 25; the Falcons entered this week 17-4 overall and 3-2 in region.
What comes next
The UHSAA 6A girls tennis regular season ends Sept. 29. State roster entry is due by 5 p.m. Sept. 30, with the bracket reveal Oct. 1. The 6A first round is Oct. 3, and the championship rounds are Oct. 8 and Oct. 10. Skyridge's published schedule lists the Region 3 tournament on Sept. 24.
That is the calendar Zobell is coaching toward: a Region 3 gauntlet that last year ran through Lone Peak, Skyridge, American Fork and Corner Canyon, then a 6A state meet where 11 or 13 points has been Lehi's ceiling since the classification jump. The Westlake Open medals in both doubles brackets, and the sets-won tiebreaker at his own Ladies Open, are the first on-the-record evidence of how he wants that climb to look.
