The Season D all-state girls tennis teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.

These teams were created based upon results at the state tournament.

The athletes who won championships at their classification were named players of the year. Coaches of the year were awarded to the coaches of championship teams.

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(Brad Cochi/CHSAANow.com)

Class 5A

Player of the year: Lily Chitamber, Boulder

Coach of the year: Chris Jacob, Cherry Creek

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(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

Class 4A

Player of the year: Lauren Manwiller, Mullen

Coach of the year: Jera Sturgell, Mullen

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(Luke Zahlmann/Pueblo Chieftain)

Class 3A

Player of the year: Anna Jordaan, Colorado Academy

Coach of the year: Woody Oliver, D’Evelyn

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(Brad Cochi/CHSAANow.com)

It seems like forever since the last girls tennis state tournament took place in Colorado, but a pair of perennial contenders have picked up right where they left off in Class 5A with a slew of new faces in this year’s field.

Cherry Creek, which has won 21 of the last 22 team titles, and Fairview – the only other 5A team to claim a trophy over that span – began to separate themselves once again on Day 1 of the state tournament at Gates Tennis Center on Friday. When play resumes with semifinals on Saturday, Cherry Creek will be in the lead with 21 team points and Fairview will open the final day just two points behind the Bruins.

“It’s so exciting because it’s been two years,” Fairview head coach Susan Stensrud said. “For us, that means that a large bulk of my team has been been here before. The vibe is that we’re just thrilled and excited to be here and to come back tomorrow.”

At No. 1 singles, defending 2019 champion Valerie Negin of Smoky Hill is still alive in her bid to defend the title she won two years ago when she debuted at the state tournament as a sophomore. In Saturday’s penultimate round, Negin will face defending No. 2 singles champion Alexis Bernthal. Either Boulder’s Lily Chitamber or Cherry Creek’s Jaque Pearsall, who will meet in the opposing semifinal, awaits the winner.

In total, the Cherry Creek Bruins advanced their players to the semifinals at all seven roster spots. Fairview players are still alive in six brackets. The Ralston Valley Mustangs, who finished Day 1 at third in the team scoring, advanced players to three semifinals.

“This season for us has been magical,” Ralston Valley head coach Kim Greason said. “With two years off, more than half of my squad has never had varsity-level competition. A lot of them are new, but we won league and our girls really gelled. Although they may not have the years of experience under their belt like some of these other teams, they’ve got that team spirit and that cohesiveness that a lot of the time pulls them through matches because they know they’re playing for each other.”

Semifinals for this year’s single-elimination tournament will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Poudre, Fort Collins, Heritage, Fossil Ridge, Chatfield and Denver East will also have players competing championships when they do.

“We’re looking forward to tough matches at every spot,” Cherry Creek head coach Chris Jacob said. “We’re expecting a challenge right from the beginning of the day. I’m happy with how the girls played today and we’ve prepared as well as we could in a short amount of time, but we know there are lots of good teams out there so we know we’ll have tough matches at every position.”

(Brad Cochi/CHSAANow.com)

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

PUEBLO — It wouldn’t be a true state tennis tournament at Pueblo City Park if it wasn’t setup for a thrilling final day. That will be the case once again as Cheyenne Mountain, Mullen and Niwot will battle it out for the state title as each school has at least four of seven positions into Saturday’s Class 4A girls tennis semifinals. Mullen leads the team race with 16 points while Cheyenne Mountain has 15.

Cheyenne Mountain fell in No. 2 Singles as Windsor’s Schrader beat Brooke Ballenger and the No. 2 Doubles team of Emma Delich and Katie Delich lost to Mullen’s Tierney Scanlan and Izzy Desjardins in what was maybe the pivotal match of the day. Marin Smith fell in the first round of the No. 3 Singles bracket for Mullen and Brooklyn Hanley and Parker Durand lost to Grand Junction’s Natalie Hanks and Kylie Hanks.

Each team will rest up and do what they need to be ready for Saturday’s semifinals.

“We’re having team dinner and pool night,” Mullen’s Lauren Manwiller said. “We’re getting to bed early but our whole team is going to be here tomorrow to support everyone and we’re all going to be watching each other’s matches and cheering each other on.”

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

The No. 1 Singles bracket is proving to be a key race for the team title. Manwiller dropped just five total games in two rounds to advance to the semifinals and Cheyenne Mountain freshman Maya Michalski looked strong herself as she rolled into the semis with wins over Longmont’s Lauren Pavot and Grand Junction’s Emma Aubert.

For a freshman playing in the top position, Michalski showed no signs of showing any nerves on a stage where her team has a tendency to contend for a championship every year.

“I was worried for a few matches,” she said. “But I just powered through.”

Both teams have their own pockets of inexperience as Michalski is in just her freshman year at the school and Mullen only has four players on the roster with previous varsity experience. Part of it is because of youth and part is because last year’s state tournament wasn’t contested because of COVID-19.

“It helps because No. 1 has the most points,” Michalski said. “The fact that I’m still in it and doing well makes me happy for the team.”

There are five teams bunched close to the top with Kent Denver, Niwot and Palmer Ridge all within five points of the lead and the state tournament itself is a representation of how much parity there is across the classification.

“This is exciting and I’m pretty darn sure this is how it was going to be,” Cheyenne Mountain coach Dave Adams said. “From looking at the participants and the MaxPreps scores, I thought there were five or six teams that could win it. It’s really close.

Semifinals begin at Pueblo City Park at 9 a.m. on Saturday with championships tentatively scheduled for 11 a.m.

Cherry Creek took a narrow lead after the first day of the Class 5A girls tennis state tournament at Gates Tennis Center.

(Brad Cochi/CHSAANow.com)

DENVER – The Cherry Creek girls tennis team isn’t used to waiting long between state championships.

The Bruins won three straight Class 5A team titles from 2017-19. But when an unexpected newcomer in COVID-19 blocked them from a title in 2020, the Bruins were forced to sit idle and wait for another shot at extending their streak. On Saturday at Gates Tennis Center, an unusually hungry Cherry Creek girls amassed 66 team points to run away from Fairview – the 2016 champion – to leave the 5A state tournament with the trophy once again.

Even for decorated Bruins like senior Halley Mackiernan, who has never lost a match at state and has now been part of three team titles amidst the Bruins’ seemingly endless run of winning 22 out of the last 23 championships, this most recent victory was exceptional.

“We’ve all been waiting for this for so long, especially not being able to play the season last year,” Mackiernan said. “It’s finally here and it’s a great feeling unlike any other state championship. I’m so sad to leave the team, but I’m so happy we were able to come back out here and win this one after wanting it for so long.”

(Brad Cochi/CHSAANow.com)

The individual gold went to Boulder’s Lily Chitambar, but not without a fight from Smoky Hill’s Valerie Negin. After defeating 2019 No. 2 singles champion Alexis Bernthal in the semifinals, Negin pushed Chitambar to the brink during a three-set match that included a first-set comeback from being down 5-0 to win a tiebreaker before the Boulder junior eventually prevailed, 6-7, 6-0, 6-4.

“I just tried to stay as mentally tough as I could,” said Chitambar, who placed fourth as a freshman in 2019. “It was super hot and after she came back from 0-5, I was a little shaken up. I just tried to go one point at a time and stay tough. It felt really good and it was definitely more exciting to win the championship because she’s such a good player and it was such a good match.”

The rest of Saturday’s finals resembled a head-to-head dual match between the Bruins and the Fairview Knights, who trailed the eventual champions by just two points to start Day 2. Cherry Creek advanced to the finals at six of the seven total ladder spots and played Fairview head-to-head in five of those matches.

At No. 2 singles, Cherry Creek’s Lorena Cedeno beat Fairview’s Natalie Stone, 6-2, 4-6, 6-0. At No. 3 singles, Cherry Creek’s Anika Sharma edged Fairview freshman Alexis Bernthal, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.

(Brad Cochi/CHSAANow.com)

Cherry Creek twins Eliza Hill and Nicole Hill, who played together for the first time this season, won 6-3, 6-1 over Fairview’s Virginia Gomulka and Elizabeth Roth at No. 1 doubles. In the No. 2 doubles finals, Mackiernan and Anna Fusaris won 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 against Fairview’s Jane Roth and Maya Brakhage. The No. 3 doubles title match went in favor of Cherry Creek’s Victoria Moldovan and Jisele Boker, who beat Fairview’s Mia Grayson, 6-2, 6-2. At No. 4 doubles, Cherry Creek’s Ella Barclay and Vivienne Bersin won 6-2, 6-0 over Fossil Ridge’s Katie Sollenberger and Avery MacKenzie.

The Bruins have now won 37 championships in total.

“The girls just persisted and they were intent on spending time together this season,” Cherry Creek head coach Chris Jacob said. “They bonded in a great way in a short amount of time and I think that made a huge difference. Our senior leadership was tremendous and when I see matches like two singles and three singles where the girls are cheering each other on and our girls are nervous but that helps them fight through it, I know a lot of that has to do with that connection they’ve made with one another.

“To do that in six weeks is pretty impressive.”

Fairview finished runner-up with 39 team points.

Heritage won the sportsmanship award.

(Brad Cochi/CHSAANow.com)

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

PUEBLO — Lauren Manwiller faced a bit of a trouble in the second set of the Class 4A girls tennis No. 1 Singles championship.

She had dropped the first game of both sets to Loveland’s Beilynn Geiss and Manwiller was down 15-break in the 10th game of the second set. She held a 5-4 lead and with the temperature rising at Pueblo City Park, playing a third set was something she wasn’t interested in doing.

So she rallied and to get the 6-2, 6-4 to give the Mustangs a No. 1 Singles title. That win also pushed them out of reach of Cheyenne Mountain to claim the team championship. Manwiller knew that while she was playing for herself in her position, she also had team implications riding on the result.

“That’s what I love about high school tennis,” she said. “I love it more than tournaments. I’m on a team where they support me and I support them.”

She needed the support through the duration of her match. Geiss got on the board early, taking the first game in each set trying to establish momentum early. But Manwiller was prepared for the battle ahead of her.

She didn’t shy away from the challenge of falling into an early hole, but rather she embraced it and used as fuel to battle back.

“I knew she would hold her serve so I just stayed focused,” Manwiller said. “I just played my game and held my serve for most of the time. I knew if I could hold my serve then I would likely win.”

Prior to the championship she faced her toughest challenge in Niwot’s Alys Pop. The Cougars sophomore put up quite a fight in the semis but after Manwiller got the first set 7-5, she rolled to a 6-1 win to close out the match.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

Although the No. 1 Singles match was all that was needed for the Mustangs to win the team title, the overall team went on a gold medal hunt on Saturday. Tierney Scanlan and Izzy Desjardins won the No. 2 Doubles title while Madeline Crites and Aubryanne Meugers rolled to a No. 3 Doubles crown.

They weren’t reliant on just one position, the Mustangs wanted to put together an all-around great team performance to finish with 45 points.

“It was a whole team effort,” Mullen coach Jera Sturgell said. “It was obviously a tough season with the restrictions and everything. We came in blind and coming into state we had to play our best because the best is here.”

The team championship is the first for the Mustangs since 2006.

The biggest drama of the day came in the race for team runner-up as Niwot had a chance to overtake Cheyenne Mountain, but Palmer Ridge’s Tessa Rothwell beat Niwot’s Anna Sallee in No. 2 Singles to dash the Cougars’ hopes of a runner-up finish.

Cheyenne Mountain held on to win second as a team despite not winning a single state championship at the tournament.

Kent Denver left Southern Colorado with hardware of their own as the Sun Devils were given the Vicky Matarazzo Sportsmanship Award.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

Cherry Creek and Boulder came away the big winners of the final day of the Class 5A girls tennis state tournament.

Results from the 2021 Class 5A girls tennis state tournament, held June 11-12 in Denver, are below.

Note that the schedule has been changed to a two-day tournament in Season D.

The first two rounds at each position will be played Friday, starting at 9 a.m. Starting with singles matches, first-round matches will be put on as courts become available. Quarterfinal times are approximate and will be put on as courts become available. All remaining matches are scheduled for Saturday, starting at 9 a.m.

Should weather intervene, check CHSAANow for contingency plans.

These results will be updated throughout the tournament.

For more information on the process for creating these brackets, click here or scroll down.

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2021 Class 5A girls tennis state tournament

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No. 1 Singles

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No. 2 Singles

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No. 3 Singles

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No. 1 Doubles

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No. 2 Doubles

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No. 3 Doubles

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No. 4 Doubles

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