4A girls state tennis: Durango having fun on and off the court
PUEBLO — The Durango Demons ventured all the way over Wolf Creek Pass to partake in a tennis tournament, not a karaoke contest.
But one wouldn’t know it on the road trip.
“Sometimes we’ll just plug in the aux cord and have a great time singing, even though everyone is bad at singing,” freshman Mavis Edwards said. “It’s just fun putting our phones away and enjoying each other’s company.”
And then there’s tennis.
Edwards made quite the first impression on her first trip to the Class 4A state tennis tournament at Pueblo City Park. She beat Lewis-Palmer’s Emma Gaydos and Mattie Kuntzelman – last year’s No. 2 singles champion – to advance to the No. 1 singles semifinal.
The Demons also got their No. 2 doubles team in the semis as Lily Chick and Emily West topped Coronado’s duo of Sydney Coen and Emma Sartain.
For Mavis, the accomplishment is especially impressive considering she’s in her freshman year. She could’ve come into her first foray at state tennis looking to make an impact and become the second freshman in a row to take the No. 1 singles title.
But she’d rather just enjoy the moment. And if she just so happens to become the first Demon to win a singles title, so be it.
“For me, personally, it’s not very important to walk away with a win,” Edwards said. “I do it for fun. I enjoy what I do.”
The fun-loving mentality is certainly contagious with the Demons. They’ve traveled the longest road to get to state and the experience itself brings an incredibly close team even closer.
“The girls, we’re all really good friends,” sophomore Emma Hackett said. “In the hotel rooms we’ll just laugh. It’s all really fun.”
Hackett, however, has a touch more of a competitive drive when it comes to performing on the court. She lost 6-1, 6-0 in No. 3 singles, but knows that she still has time to get back to this level.
“I’m really competitive,” Hackett said. “It’s fun, but I really want to win.”
She’ll have a chance to end her season as a winner if Cheyenne Mountain’s Claire Dibble can advance to the finals, putting Hackett into the playback bracket.
The Indians jumped out to a lead in their hunt for a ninth-straight team championship. They advanced all seven positions to the semis.
“That’s all you can ask,” Cheyenne Mountain coach David Adams said. “If you want to be able to control your own destiny, you have to win (on Thursday). If you lose one, then you have to hope someone else can pull you through.”
It will be a tough slate for the defending champions. In No. 1 singles, it will be a battle of sophomores as Morgan Hall is set to face reigning No. 1 single champion Josie Schaffer from Kent Denver.
It wasn’t an easy task for Hall to get to the semis as she had to go three sets against Niwot’s Taylor Thulson.
“For Morgan to get through five-all in third, she was down love-40,” Adams said. “She dug and dug and held serve to come out of that match.”
Semifinals will begin at Pueblo City Park at 9 a.m. Friday morning.
