The talk entering this week’s Class 5A state girls tennis tournament was that this was the year someone would knock Cherry Creek off its pedestal.
Uh, you better think again.
Behind three state championships Saturday, Cherry Creek extended its run of state team titles to 12 straight at the Gates Tennis Center. With Caroline Schnell leading the charge at No. 1 singles, the Bruins scored 65 points, more than enough to hold off second-place Ponderosa (57) and third-place Chatfield (50). It is the 18th title in the past 20 years for Cherry Creek.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with how well the girls prepared. I know going in we were the favorite, but from watching us practice the last couple of weeks I could tell we could do this,” Cherry Creek coach Chris Jacob said.
But it wasn’t easy.
“This is a Creek tradition. There’s a lot of pressure on the girls to continue that,” Jacob said.
The last time someone other than Cherry Creek won the title — Grand Junction in 1996 — Schnell wasn’t even in school. But against her good friend Carolyn Warren of Fairview in the finals, Schnell proved she had graduated to the elite field in Colorado girls tennis with a 6-2, 7-6 (2) victory.
“It was a really good match. I can’t get over it,” Schnell said. “I worked really hard the whole season. This was what I was looking for.”
Schnell held serve in the match’s first game, which went 18 points that included six deuces and four break points for Warren. Schnell finished it off with a baseline winner.
“The first couple of games set my groove, got my confidence going,” Schnell said.
“That was an intense game. I wish I could’ve pulled that one out,” Warren said.
Schnell broke Warren’s serve three times in the next seven games to take the opening set, but Warren wasn’t going to go away that easily.
The Fairview senior, who won the No. 3 singles title last year, won three of the first four games of the second set and seemed destined to force a third set. But after Schnell held to make it 3-2, she broke Warren again, tying up the second set. They went back-and-forth before settling the matter in a tiebreaker.
After splitting the first four points, Schnell won four in a row before finishing off her opponent with another baseline drive.
Warren, who beat Schnell earlier this season, took defeat graciously.
“I’m still excited that I got this close,” she said.
Ponderosa figured to be the toughest challenger to Cherry Creek’s stranglehold on the team title. The Mustangs made some noise three weeks ago when they became the first team other than the Bruins to win the Cherry Creek Invitational since its inception in 1996.
And going into Saturday’s final round, Ponderosa trailed by only three points with a possibility of collecting 15. The Mustangs even won the only head- to-head final against Cherry Creek at No. 3 singles. But they managed just two other wins — one from last year’s champion Erin Sanders in the No. 1 singles playback against Poudre’s Natalie Dunn and in the No. 3 doubles consolation finals.
One of those blown opportunities was at No. 1 doubles, where the Chatfield duo of Kelley Pickens and Melissa LeMar scored a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Kaley Carmichael and Melissa Skovira.
