DENVER — Dawid Kijak screamed at himself in the first set, “I’m choking, come on!” In the second set, Tom Melville then yelled, “What the heck!” after he repeatedly kept sending his serves into the net.
The two tennis players went back and forth like that for more than two hours in an epic Class 5A No. 1 singles state quarterfinal match.
Overland’s junior, Kijak, and Fairview’s junior, Melville, found each other in a rematch that had ended in a Regional upset before. And on paper, this quarterfinal ended in another upset, as Kijak once again defeated Melville.
Mellville and Kijak split sets 6-3, 6-2 respectively at Gates Tennis Center on Thursday afternoon. And the two battled all the way to a tiebreaker in the third set, which Kijak won 7-6 (1), helping Overland — a school not known for its tennis program — to the school’s best team performance since 1997.
The last time Overland had any success in the state tennis tournament, the team finished as the 1997 state runner-up to Cherry Creek with three players losing in finals at No. 1, 2 and 3 singles.
The Blazers scored one point in 2015, which was the most since that runner-up year. Overland finished the first day of the 2016 tournament with four points.
“Last month Dawid told me he wanted to win state,” Kijak’s close family friend and personal tennis coach Chris Moll said. “And we literally started grinding every day after that. One time we woke up at 5 a.m. just to play and he wanted to push, so that just shows you that he’s been working hard and putting his mind to tennis.”
Kijak said it was sudden inspiration.
“I hit the courts and gym a lot four weeks before state. I only have Chris to hit with, I’m not in a club or anything,” Kijak said.
He added: “People think of Overland as only basketball, but we’re also good at tennis too.”
The only individual boys tennis champ out of O-Town was in 1996 at No. 2 singles. Kijak could be Overland’s first, but said he needs to work on his mental game and backhand as he heads into a semifinal match.
Cherry Creek and Fairview are the perennial tennis powerhouses, but this year a ton of new blood came to compete in the big tournaments and Kijak is headed to the semifinals on Friday.
Overland leads the pack as Kijak and No. 2 singles senior teammate Draden Hoover pulled huge upsets in the Regional tournament over Fairview’s No. 1 and 2 singles players, Melville and junior Ethan Schacht. And both Kijak and Draden were pitted in rematches in the state quarterfinals on Thursday against these guys.
“We’re not happy about that because both Dawid and Draden beat Fairview guys in Regionals and they were both upsets,” Overland tennis assistant and singles coach Woodie Smith said. “We were hoping we wouldn’t have to face Fairview again until the state semifinals. Facing them again in second round is tough.”
Kijak prevailed in his rematch, surrounded by much hype from other spectators; Draden, who has battled a torn rotator cuff and partially torn labrum since the beginning of the tennis season and had been serving underhand to opponents, lost.
“Journey’s over,” Hoover said. “But if I weren’t hurt, man, I would have won state.”
Overland also qualified a No. 3 singles player as well: senior Henry Vice, who lost in the first round to Fossil Ridge’s Akhil Gupta.
According to coach Smith, Kijak has been the Centennial League champion the last two years and hasn’t lost a league match.
“Dawid has been our force this year. He’s lost a couple matches in tournaments, but other than that, he’s been pretty solid,” Smith said. “Dawid’s freshman year, he played No. 2 singles behind Draden, and played No. 1 singles as a sophomore and lost in the first round.
Hoover didn’t play his sophomore year due to a tournament conflict. Since he was playing in a United State Tennis Association (USTA) national tournament that was going on the same time as Colorado’s state tournament, he decided not to play. Last season he lost in the first round at No. 2 singles.
But Overland doesn’t think its unmatched when it competes against the other big tennis schools.
“We’ve been around long enough to know if we have the kids, they’ll compete just as well as anyone else,” Smith said. “We’ve competed against the Cherry Creeks and Fairviews and beaten them. To us, it’s not big deal. Some schools fear big schools, but we don’t. We come to play.”
Kijak takes on Heritage junior Skyler Gates in the Class 5A No. 1 singles semifinal on Friday.
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Bear Creek qualifies freshman
Bear Creek qualified one person for the state tennis tournament in freshman Robert Kamarali.
He is the only freshman in the Class 5A No. 1 singles bracket, and was defeated by Denver East senior Kai Smith 6-0, 6-1.
Brighton doubles competing
Brighton, a team that usually doesn’t make a scene at the tennis tournament, qualified a No. 2 doubles pair: Keegan Estrella and Ryan Smith. Estrella and Smith were defeated 6-4, 6-0 in the first round by Mountain Vista’s Collin Bean and Tommy Hipp.
Horizon’s “Little McEnroes”
Horizon baseball players Parker Kretzler and Jett Lopez channeled their inner John McEnroe at the state tournament, with the raddest hairstyles around.
In their first state tournament appearance at No. 3 doubles, the duo won the first round match 6-2, 6-2 against Broomfield’s Blake Wood and Henry Kuhna, but fell in the quarterfinals to Regis Jesuit’s Matt McCarthy and Gabe Caldwell-Nepveux, 7-5, 6-4.
Class 5A boys tennis team race
Cherry Creek holds a solid first place lead at the end of the first day of the state tournament with 21 points — the most possible amount for a Day 1 finish.
Denver East is in second place with 19 points.
Fairview are Regis Jesuit are in a two-way tie for third place with 17 points.
