Fairview’s Amber Shen. More photos. (Ray Chen/arrayphoto.com)
DENVER — The No. 1 singles final match at the girls’ Class 5A state tennis tournament had all the makings of a Hollywood script. There was passion, drama and the underdog came away with the victory.
Fairview’s Amber Shen defeated Cherry Creek’s Kalyssa Hall 3-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (6) on Wednesday in the best match of the tournament.
“I felt like she was being tentative; I told her to be aggressive,” Fairview coach Susan Stensrud said. “She’s a great player. She just had to play her game.”
The road to the championship was anything but easy for Shen. She dropped the first set 6-3 to Hall, who won two 4A No. 1 singles titles while playing at Cheyenne Mountain. (Hall transferred to Creek this season.)
Shen then dropped three of the first four games in the second set, only to win four in a row to take a 5-3 lead.
The match soon grew charged with emotion when the chair official overruled several of Hall’s out calls. But Hall was able to overcome it and take a 6-5 lead in the set.
With a chance to serve for the match, the duo were locked at deuce and with advantage out, Hall double-faulted on the serve to send it to a tie-breaker.
Shen cruised through the tie-breaker to win it 7-3. In between sets, Hall was advised by the official that she was being corrected too many times and gave her an official caution.
“I’ve been in matches where similar things have happened,” Shen said. “There have been issues with line calls and stuff so I had some experience with that and it definitely helped me.”
In the third and deciding set, Hall and Shen traded games back and forth with neither one able to break the other’s serve. That changed when Hall was up 4-3. She was able to break Shen and take a 5-3 lead, once again putting her in a position to win the match.
But Shen returned the favor in the next game to once again level the field. With Shen serving and Hall leading the third set 5-4, the official once again corrected a Hall claim that Shen’s shot landed out.
After giving a point to Shen earlier in the match, the official awarded the game to Shen for this latest correction, tying the third set at 5-5.
“I’m not 100 percent sure that was the right call,” Shen said. “The next game, I was tight and shaken by that and Kalyssa was definitely pumped by that.”
Hall came back to win the next the game, getting her third chance to seal the match.
“I think that shows how much she wanted it and how much of a competitor she is,” Cherry Creek coach Chris Jacob said. “I think there were opportunities where she could’ve been (mentally taken out of the match) but she was able to refocus herself.”
Shen came back to win the next game, putting the match into another tie-breaker.
A see-saw affair saw Hall get corrected two more times at that point. Rather than awarding Shen the match — which by rule he could have done — the official allowed top singles players to decide the championship on the court.
Shen won the tie-breaker to 8-6 to give her a No. 1 singles title as a freshman.
Cherry Creek won the team title. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
“Even now, I don’t believe I won,” Shen said. “Even at match point I wasn’t sure if I was going to win or not.”
All was not lost for the Bruins however as they came away with their 19th consecutive team title.
“Every girl on the team gets to know that they were a part of that,” Jacob said. “There’s pressure going for 19 in row. That’s what our boys’ record is, so there’s pressure we try not to talk about. But it’s there.”
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Notables
Rock Canyon has historical
Rock Canyon’s Sydney Boyle and Caroline Skibness had the best showing in Rock Canyon history as they placed fourth overall.
Girls Tennis was just awarded the 2015 5A State Sportsmanship Award and finished 9th overall as a team at State! pic.twitter.com/mOTqk3Lc7z
Rock Canyon also came away with the tournament’s Sportsmanship Award.
Ralston Valley duo wins state in final match together
The Ralston Valley duo of Haley Weidemann and Adrien Horowitz have played every match at the state tournament together. Their journey this year ended with a state championship in No. 1 doubles.
State champs at 1D!! Wiedemann and Horowitz take the title!! Congrats!
— Ralston Valley Athletics (@HS_MUSTANGS) May 13, 2015
And now she has something to show for it with a Class 4A state championship in No. 1 singles in her first taste of prep tennis.
Burger, coming off victories over fellow title favorites Tara Edwards of Colorado Academy in the quarterfinals and Payton Fielding of Cheyenne Mountain in the semis, was cruising through the tournament in impressive fashion Monday and Tuesday at the City Park Complex in Pueblo.
But Alex Weil of St. Mary’s Academy, a senior who finished third in No. 1 singles in 2013 and was the state runner-up in 2014, was waiting in the finals. Weil, who greatly outsized Burger, overpowered the freshman 6-4 in the first set with her big serve and forehand.
Burger adjusted and began using her superior agility to her advantage. She won the second set 6-1.
“Once we started extending the rally and having her make plays, it was in Tatum’s favor,” Steamboat Springs coach John Aragon said.
From then on, it was all Burger as she secured the 4A crown with an easy 6-0 win in the third and final set. The freshman joined Kacey Bernard as the only Steamboat girls to ever win No. 1 singles at the 4A state championships.
Burger capped off her season with an unblemished record at 17-0.
Aragon knew he had something special in Burger, but also respected the caliber of players in the field.
“From the start, when we looked at the draw the big one was the CA girl,” he said. “She is a player. Tatum came up against CA and played tough and took it to her.”
Then came Cheyenne Mountain’s Fielding, a big hitter, and finally Weil, an equally big hitter.
“When she made them play to extend the points, it was in Tatum’s favor,” Aragon said. “She’s like a little pitbull. She’ll fight to the end.”
Burger, a quiet competitor on the court, was never rattled on the state’s biggest stage. But, she was thankful to have the support of her own built-in fan section. Five siblings, four of which were able to make it to Pueblo for finals, were in her corner.
“I’m really lucky to have my whole family here,” she said.
Burger not only won the crown for herself, but also for Steamboat, a program that has long been relevant statewide with a dozen regional titles in a row. The Sailors know success, but Wednesday was something special. Aragon hopes they can feed off the breakthrough.
“I think it’s going to get more kids out there playing,” he said. “We have a good junior program. We have a pro in there now working with them. I think Steamboat is going to come back on top like the old days. We were always a threat. Hopefully that’ll happen again.”
Cheyenne Mountain won the 4A team title. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)
The Indians closed well by winning No. 1 doubles (Casey Ahrendsen and Ally Arenson), No. 2 doubles (Tory Louis and Claire Dibble), and No. 3 doubles (Megan Dibble and Chelsey Geisz). Each pair also won the 2014 state titles in the same positions and went undefeated this year. Coach Dave Adams has 25 total team championships to his name at Cheyenne Mountain, 17 on the boys side and eight on the girls side.
He’s already looking forward to the future.
“We’ve got a nucleus of a pretty good team coming back, but we’ll have to retool some things,” he said. “We’re losing half of two, half of three, and half of four doubles. It’s the same thing everybody goes through.”
“I’m just happy for these girls and I’m trying to stay dry for the moment,” he said with a laugh right before getting the traditional Gatorade bucket dumped on him.
As much as the 4A tennis championships continued to be monopolized by the team in maroon and white, Cheyenne Mountain finished with 73 points to Kent Denver’s 46 and Colorado Academy’s 37, Wednesday was a chance for individuals to fight back.
Kent Denver’s Caroline Kawula defeated the Indians’ Daniela Adamczyk 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 in a near-three-hour match for the No. 2 singles championship.
In No. 3 singles, Maeve Kearny, a Kent sophomore, took down another Cheyenne Mountain girl by beating Jessica Metz 6-3, 6-1.
Trinity Payne and Cammy Lee won No. 4 doubles for D’Evelyn over Holy Family’s Brianna Bartlett and An Tran.
PUEBLO – Winning Class 4A girls state tennis championships is not a goal for the Cheyenne Mountain High School team. It’s an expectation.
The Indians have captured 19 state girls tennis crowns in school history and six in a row.
Cheyenne Mountain took a big step toward claiming title No. 20 on Monday at the City Park Tennis Complex.
The Indians qualified players in all seven brackets – No. 1 singles through No. 4 doubles – and they all advanced into today’s semifinals.
Peyton Fielding (No. 1 singles), Daniel Adamczyk (No. 2 singles), Jessica Metz (No. 3 singles) and Casey Ahrendsen and Ally Arenson (No. 1 doubles), Tory Louis and Claire Dibble (No. 2 doubles), Megan Dibble and Chelsey Geisz (No. 3 doubles) and Tatumn Mika and Rachel Perry ( No. 4 doubles) all won two matches each to move into the semis which get underway at 9 a.m.
“Our approach is just one match at a time,” veteran Cheyenne Mountain coach Dave Adams said. “If you start looking down the road, especially in tennis, that’s when you’re ripe for an upset. We are just focused on the next match and everybody just has to take care of their own business (Tuesday). If we can do that, as a team we will be sitting in a very dominant position.”
Cheyenne Mountain leads the team standings with 21 points followed by Kent Denver at 11 points.
The key victory for the Indians was delivered by Fielding, a senior, in the quarterfinals. Trailing Kent Denver’s Sadie Moseley 5-2 in the first set and 3-0 in the second, the senior rallied for a 7-5, 6-3 win. Moseley, a sophomore, beat Fielding in straight sets in their only meeting at the Cherry Creek tournament earlier this season.
“In the beginning of the match my nerves got a hold of me and my emotions were a little crazy,” the 6-foot-1 Fielding said. “When I was down 5-2 in the first set something finally clicked in my head. I told myself this is my last state tournament and the match isn’t over, I could come back.
“She is really good at the mental part of tennis, but I finally calmed down and I was able to relax and play. The second set I got distracted and was down 3-0 and then I started playing my game and got a lot more consistent.”
Fielding clashes with Steamboat Springs freshman Tatum Burger in the semifinals.
“I just need to go into the match not worried about what happened (Monday) and how I’ve won in the past,” Fielding said. “I just need to get all this pressure out of my mind and treat it one point at a time.”
Fielding is no stranger to the state tourney as she garnered championships at No. 2 singles as a freshman and sophomore. She didn’t play prep tennis a year ago as she was an exchange student in Brittany, France.
When Fielding returned for her senior year, she took the No. 1 singles spot vacated by two-time state champion Kalyssa Hall. Hall, a junior, transferred to Cherry Creek this fall.
“It has been a lot of pressure, coming back and being at No. 1 singles,” Fielding said. “There are a lot of eyes on me and I want to live up to last year because Kalyssa won. I also just want to help the team because we are all in this together and we all are doing well and hopefully we can keep this momentum going.”
Adams praised the play of Fielding against Moseley.
“When we saw the draw we knew that was going to be a giant match,” Adams said. “Kent is very strong in all of their singles and for us to (beat them there) is very helpful for us. Payton really stepped up when she was down.”
Adams also pointed out the performance of Adamczyk, who beat Air Academy’s Ashley Burnett for the third time in a row this season.
“Trying to beat a quality opponent three times in one season, especially three times in a row is very difficult to do,” Adams said. “She did a great job and fought through unsteady play and came up with a big win for us.”
With a 12-point lead at the end of the second of day of the tournament, Cherry Creek appears to have the team title well in hand.
But the Fairview Knights shouldn’t be counted out so easily. With five finals to play, the Knights must win every single of one of them and get some outside help in order to walk away with a team title.
Unlikely as it is, one can never say never in the world of sports.
Fairview coach Susan Stensrud is well aware of the situation her team will be in come Wednesday. But that doesn’t mean that she’s not excited about the opportunity.
“We’ve been in this position before and we know that we just have to go all out to win it,” she said. “One year, we won four and Creek won three and we still lost, so I’m still smarting from that one. We know that Creek has a really tough team.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
In all five of Fairview’s final matches, they will face off against Bruins, putting them in a win-or-go-home situation. Rather than worrying about winning, Stensrud just wants her players to play the best they can.
“I’m mostly worried about the kids playing their best and if it goes our way, then I’m happy,” she said. “I really don’t focus on the win. I think if I coach well and the kids play well, they will win. But winning is not the focus.”
In order for the Bruins to come away with their 19th-consecutive team title, all they need to do is win a single match. They will have six opportunities to do so. The only match that won’t be against a Fairview opponent is in the No. 4 doubles bracket where Hannah Peterson and Allison Murphy will take on Ralston Valley’s Riley Knipp and Priya Keller.
“Four doubles, it’s a new team with two new players on varsity,” Cherry Creek coach Chris Jacob said. “They’ve grown so much as a team while playing on this team together.”
But when Jacobs looks at the slate of matches between her players and those from Fairview, the added incentive of a team title being at stake makes things a little more interesting.
“We’ve had a great year and they’ve had a great year too, it’s fun to have that opportunity,” Jacob said. “I don’t want the girls to know that (it comes down to) one match because I don’t want them to relax too much.”
That shouldn’t be a concern for Jacob as her players are well aware of what their matches will not only mean to themselves, but to their teammates as well.
“It adds a little more intensity since we’re playing for more than just ourselves,” Cherry Creek senior Sarah Grace Walker said. “It definitely makes me want to focus more.”
Wednesday’s final matches get underway at the Gates Tennis Center at 9:30 a.m.
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Notables
Ralston Valley duo to play final match together (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Haley Weidemann and Adrien Horowitz have shared every moment of the last four state tournaments together. They have played every single match together in their four years at Ralston Valley, with Wednesday’s finals in the No. 1 doubles bracket being the last time they will compete as a team.
“I can’t imagine playing with anyone else,” Weidemann said. “We’re best friends in real life and to get to play with (Adrien) every day has been the best time ever.”
Three-hour semis
For Natalie Munson (Fairview) and Kendra Lavallee (Mountain Vista), it was plenty of time well spent on the court.
In the No. 2 singles bracket, Munson beat Lavallee 7-6 (0), 4-6, 7-5 to advance to the finals. The match took just over three hours to complete.
PUEBLO – Pressure obviously didn’t bother the powerhouse Cheyenne Mountain High School girls tennis program Tuesday at the City Park Complex.
The Indians won five of their seven semifinal matches in the morning to clinch their seventh Class 4A state championship in a row.
“We are very excited that we were able to win this title (Tuesday),” veteran Cheyenne Mountain coach Dave Adams said. “We had a very good season and we had very high expectations coming into this tournament, but when you come down here (to state), it’s still very difficult to win. Fortunately, we stepped up and played well and we got the job done.”
The Indians clinched state, thanks to semifinal wins by Daniela Adamczyk (No. 2 singles), Jessica Metz (No. 3 singles) and Casey Ahrendsen and Ally Arenson (No. 1 doubles), Tory Louis and Claire Dibble (No. 2 doubles), and Megan Dibble and Chelsey Geisz (No. 3 doubles).
The championship matches begin at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
After the semis, Cheyenne Mountain had tallied 61 points and the two closest teams in the team chase Colorado Academy and Kent Denver could only finish with 51 and 47 points if each team won all of their remaining matches.
Cheyenne finished Day 2 of the tourney with 62 points, followed by Kent Denver (38) and Colorado Academy (37).
The Indians have now captured 20 state girls tennis crowns in school history. Their record for consecutive state titles in a row is eight from 1991-1998. The Cheyenne Mountain boys tennis program has won 17 state titles.
Daniela Adamczyk.
“It feels great to win state again,” Adamczyk, a junior, said. “I’m especially happy that I was able to do my part and contribute to our team winning state again. It’s really hard to put into words what it means to be a part of this program and it’s big deal to us to keep winning state.”
Cheyenne Mountain had a chance to put all of their players in the finals, but Peyton Fielding (No. 1 singles), and Tatumn Mika and Rachel Perry (No. 4 doubles) lost in the semis. Mika and Perry are playing for third place Wednesday.
Fielding was upended by Steamboat Springs freshman Tatum Burger and Mika and Perry were outlasted by D’Evelyn’s Trinity Payne and Cammy Lee in three sets. Burger meets senior Alex Weil of St. Mary’s Academy in the finals.
Cheyenne Mountain’s No. 1 through No. 3 doubles teams all played in the same positions last season with the same partners and each are trying to repeat as state champs.
“We just need to have a workmanlike attitude (Wednesday),” Adams said. “It’s great that we’ve already won the team title and that will let us relax a little bit, but no one wants to end the season with a loss. I know all our girls want to win, and will be ready to play.”
Adamczyk, meanwhile, is aiming to win her first state title after losing in the state finals at No. 3 singles as a freshman and No. 2 singles as a sophomore. Adamczyk faces Kent Denver’s Caroline Kawula in the finals. Kawula defeated Adamczyk in straight sets earlier this season.
“The first set of that match I was leading 5-2 before I lost in a tiebreaker, so I know I can play with her,” Adamczyk said. “I just have to play my match and hopefully this will be the time I win (state). That’s my goal.”
DENVER — Coming into the girls’ Class 5A state tennis tournament, no Douglas County player had advanced to the semifinals. Clara Larson came in hoping to break that streak, but came up just short. She fell 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to Mountain Vista’s Casey Zhong in the No. 1 singles bracket.
“I hadn’t really thought about it,” Larson said. “I just wanted to take it one match a time.”
But the saving grace for the Huskies is that no player in recent history has been able to advance to the quarterfinals, a feat she accomplished after a 6-0, 6-0 win over Rock Canyon sophomore Maleeha Chowdhury.
“She played against (Maleeha) during the season and that helped us not be so nervous,” Huskies coach Diane Kosakowski said.
Larson found herself in early trouble in the quarterfinal match after dropping the first set. She was able to battle back and take an early lead in set two, never giving it back. Zhong returned the favor in the third state, grabbing an early lead and not giving up any ground.
For now, the program will have to settle for program victory of returning to the semifinals and having a presence at the state tournament.
“(Now that) it’s over, I’ll probably consider it a victory for the school,” Larson said.
For the Huskies, Larson was far from the only story on the day. Before the tournament had been postponed, it didn’t look like Douglas County’s only other state qualifiers were going to be able to play. Their No. 2 doubles team of Elaine Cox and Sanskriti Sazena are both in the IB program and exams would’ve forced them to withdraw from the tournament.
Last week’s rain came as a bit of a blessing for the duo. With the tournament being pushed back five days, the girls were able to make their tennis schedule work with their exam schedule.
“I had two tests scheduled for Thursday and Friday so we weren’t going to play because school is more important,” Sazena said. “We were lucky that the tournament got postponed because we were able to figure it out.”
Unfortunately, that didn’t mean that they could solely focus their attention on tennis. An exam was moved up so they could take it 6:30 a.m. Monday morning before heading to the Gates Tennis Center for their match, which they lost to Cherry Creek’s Jessie Murphy and Mariela Hollines 6-1, 6-0.
“Before their match they were studying physics,” Kosakowski said. “These are two really smart kids. One is going to Duke (Cox) and the other is going to Berkley (Saznea).”
The duo made it their goal to reach the state tournament and just wanted the opportunity to compete at the event. Although they didn’t advance as far as they would like, they took solace in the fact that they were able to achieve a goal they had set for themselves.
“We really wanted to make it to state since we started freshman year,” Cox said. “Getting the chance to come here and just play a match was really satisfying for us.”
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Notables
Sibling rivalry
The 5A tournament turned out to be a family affair for the Huskies’ Elaine Cox. Her sister Claire qualified for Ponderosa and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Marathon matches
The day was not short on extended matches. The three longest of the day all went to a tie-break at some point in the match.
The 5A and 4A girls tennis tournaments have been moved to next week because of rain that is forecast for this weekend. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
AURORA — The state tournaments for both Class 5A and 4A girls tennis have been postponed to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week due to expected rain at both tournament sites this weekend.
This is the first time in the history of the tournament that the entire event will be postponed.
“This is not something we arrived at lightly, as there is much that goes into planning this tournament, both on our side of things, and from the schools’ perspective,” said Bethany Brookens, CHSAA assistant commissioner who oversees tennis. “After careful consideration much of this week, we decided this was the right move.”
Both tournaments were originally scheduled for Thursday through Saturday, with 5A taking place at Gates Tennis Center in Denver, and 4A at Pueblo City Park. Those sites will not change, just the dates.
As the tournament begins on Monday, Sunday contact will be permitted for tennis athletes and coaches to practice and travel to tournament sites.
CHSAA officials are urging teams to change their hotel arrangements as soon as possible.
With rain already falling from the early part of the week, CHSAA officials made site visits to both Gates and Pueblo City Park on Wednesday to assess the courts, and then made the decision to move it.
Rain is in the forecast for both Denver and Pueblo this weekend. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Denver, there is an 80 percent chance of rain all three days, with temperatures hovering around 60 degrees. In Pueblo over the three days, the chance of rain is 50 percent on Thursday, and then 80 percent on Friday and Saturday. Rain is also in the forecast for Sunday in both areas.
It is expected to be sunny in Denver and Pueblo on Monday and Tuesday, with only a 10 percent chance of rain in both areas on Wednesday.
(Bethany Brookens/CHSAANow.com)
The idea of starting the tournaments at multiple sites on Thursday to complete as many rounds as possible before rain hits in the afternoon was discussed, but ultimately, Brookens and the rest of the CHSAA staff decided that it did not make sense with all-day rain anticipated Friday and Saturday.
“We don’t want teams to have to travel (to the tournament sites) twice,” Brookens said. “It is possible we would have been able to complete one round on Thursday, but then the teams would have been sitting around for two days, waiting for the rain to pass. With the change, it is our hope that teams will only have to travel once.”
Additionally, Brookens added, “The tournament fields will narrow greatly on Tuesday, so the impact in terms of lost school time will be decreased at that time.”
The postponement also allows the tournament to remain a three-day event. Shortening the tournament to two days was discussed, but ultimately shot down. Moving to an indoor facility was also considered.
“Playing around the clock on a limited number of indoor courts is not a practical option, nor would it be a positive experience for the players,” Brookens said.
Though the change may conflict with other previously-scheduled events in high schools next week, moving the tournament was ultimately the best option, Brookens said.
“We understand and know there are other commitments scheduled for next week, such as IB and AP testing” Brookens said. “Unfortunately, the reality is that even if we started play on Thursday, we would be forced to finish the tournament next week because of the rain due this weekend. We wanted to be proactive and we apologize that we have to move these dates.”
Draws for the Class 5A girls tennis state tournament, held May 7-9 at Gates Tennis Center in Denver, are below.
All matches start at 9 a.m. each day. The first two rounds at each position will be played Thursday. Friday morning will be all semifinals, and the playback matches will start immediately afterwards. All third- and fourth-place matches and finals will be at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Should weather intervene, check CHSAANow.com 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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Class 5A girls tennis state tournament
Click on a tab to see that bracket, or team scores.
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Information on the state tournament and draw creation
Only those teams who qualify four or more positions to state are eligible for the CHSAA state team championship title. The bracket creation process is as follows:
All 16 individuals/teams will be considered for placement on the draw.
The top 4 individuals/teams will be placed.
The committee shall consider the following factors (in no particular order of importance): strength of league, overall record, strength of competition, head-to-head competition and common opponents.
The remaining Regional Winners (#1’s) will be randomly drawn for places on the draw.
The Regional Finishers (#2’s) will then be randomly drawn for matches against a Regional Winner.
All Regional Winners will be paired against a Regional Finishers.
No two teams or individuals from the same Region will play each other during the first round of the state championship.
