Kent Denver still has a chance to unseat Cheyenne Mountain as 4A girls tennis state champion. More photos. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
PUEBLO — It’s not going to be easy, but it can still be done.
At the conclusion of semifinals and playbacks at the Class 4A girls state tennis tournament, Kent Denver was still alive. That wasn’t the case a year ago as Cheyenne Mountain was able to wrap up their seventh-consecutive title on the second day of competition.
This year, they’ll have to fight to the end.
The Indians currently sit in first place with 69 points and the Sun Devils are right behind them at 56. Cheyenne Mountain will compete in five championship matches Friday while Kent Denver will compete in four. They’ll go head-to-head in two of those matches.
“It’s hard when you hear of the mystique of Cheyenne Mountain,” Sun Devils No. 3 singles player Natalie Bronsdon said. “I think being the underdog and not having as much pressure on us, we come out and we’re going to fight for it.”
Bronsdon scored a major victory for her team in taking Cheyenne Mountain’s Claire Dibble in the semifinals. She won the match 6-3 6-2.
Dibble was forced to put the loss out of her mind and hit the court for playbacks. She beat Discovery Canyon’s Emma Zamora to earn crucial points for the Indians in the race for the team title.
“(The playbacks) are very important points-wise,” Dibble said. “Coach (David) Adams really stresses the importance that if you lose your first match to really shake that off and look toward the next one because that’s where the team is really counting on you.”
And when matches begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, it’s going to be all about team effort. Cheyenne Mountain has a little more padding with a 13-point lead and Kent Denver knows that in order to prevent the Indians from coming away with their eight-straight title, they’ll have to all battle together.
“Every match is really important,” Bronsdon said. “Even if we’re not playing, it’s really important to be off the court and be cheering on our other teams. The support from your teammates is unbelievable. It helps so much and it makes such a huge difference.”
With so much on the line, it begs the question as to how the Sun Devils will approach their day. They’ve already scored better than they did a year ago and as stated before, still alive for the team title.
With that being the case, Kent Denver coach Gay West doesn’t want to disrupt her players in any way, shape or form. To her, normal is the best case scenario.
“At this point of the tournament, there isn’t really much to say (to them),” she said. “They got here doing what they do and for me to try and tell them anything different than what they’ve been doing would be doing them a disservice. Just keep them confident, keep them going, keep them having fun. It’s not rocket science.”
The Sun Devils will have two chances to take points right out of the Indians’ pockets as they’ll face off in No. 1 and No. 4 doubles.
For the rest of the day, they’ll be looking for some outside help, but none of that matters if they don’t take care of their own business.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun and knowing that our teammates are going to be cheering for us and our families and our coaches,” Bronsdon said. “We’ve done everything this season to prepare for this moment, so I think we’re ready.”