BOULDER, Colo.-
Cherry Creek is the state champion of girls 5A tennis once again.
The perennial powerhouse completed what has been a standard routine in the girls Class 5A state tennis championships. Cherry Creek led from wire to wire before wrapping up the title Saturday at the tournament held at the University of Colorado.
It was the school’s 11th consecutive girls state tennis championship.
Cherry Creek had a robust 69 points compared to 40 for runner-up Pine Creek. Chatfield finished third with 39 points and Ponderosa with 32 was fourth.
The Bruins did it without a champion at No. 1 singles or No. 4 doubles. Those individual titles went to Ponderosa’s Erin Sanders at No. 1 singles and Gina D’Silva and Jamie Pledger of Pine Creek.
Sanders beat Pine Creek’s Simone Kalhorn, 6-4, 6-3 for the No. 1 singles title. D’Silva and Pledger disposed of Chatfield’s Anna Gleave and Molly Reynolds, in the No. 4 doubles final, 6-7(8), 6-2.
Kalhorn’s loss denied her of being the No. 1 singles champion at the 4A and 5A levels in successive years.
The victory by D’Silva and Pledger earned Pine Creek a second place finish.
The rest of the title events went pretty much as expected.
At No. 2 singles, Caroline Schnell of Cherry Creek beat Ponderosa’s Morgan Forsyth, 6-1, 6-2. Forsyth’s only other loss this year came against Schnell.
Cherry Creek’s Rachel Loeb defeated Poudre’s Ashley Camenson, 6-0, 6-0. Loeb had been part of a doubles team champion as a freshman and was the state’s No. 2 singles champion the past two years.
“They are all satisfying,” Loeb said. “None more than another.”
She won by keeping Camenson away from the net. When the Poudre senior did come up, Loeb offset the move with deep lobs.
Victoria Sargent and Stacey Berlinger won the No. 1 doubles title for Cherry Creek by beating Chatfield’s Melissa Lemar and Kelly Pickens, 6-3, 6-1. The Bruins also won the No. 2 doubles crown when Caitlain Schnell and Yasmin Fotovat beat Ali Grush and Dani Lutes of Chatfield, 6-1, 6-2.
There was another stumbling block for Cherry Creek at No. 3 doubles where Caitlyn Shafner and Corinne Hill had lost few sets let alone matches. This time they were beaten by Grand Junction’s Katie Aust and Alyssa Behrens, 6-2, 6-4.
“We felt we had nothing to lose,” Aust said. “Today was our day.”
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