3A girls tennis: Hartman claims No. 1 singles title, D’Evelyn wins second straight team crown

COLORADO SPRINGS – Ellie Hartman was trying her hardest not to dwell on the past. It was in last year’s No. 1 singles semifinal that the St. Mary’s senior ran into D’Evelyn’s Grace Li. The match went heavily in favor of Li who would eventually finish second, losing to Colorado Academy’s Anna Jordaan.

It wasn’t far-fetched to think the same outcome could happen in this year’s championship matches. But Hartman came in focused and battled her to way to a 6-4, 7-5 win over Li to win the first No. 1 singles title in school history.

Even better was that she did it on the court next to the No. 2 singles title where her teammate, Anna Costalonga, also won a state championship.

“Anna’s my best friend and came (from Italy) this year,” Hartman said. “We had a great basketball season and during basketball season we said we’d both come out (of tennis) winning state. It was kind of a dream. To actually do it is unbelievable.”

To do it in a storybook way made it all the better. Li won last year’s semifinal match 6-2, 6-2 and was seen as a favorite in the final match. Hartman spent her offseason working to refine her game and her mental focus and the results showed as she held steady in the first set, then battled from behind to claim the second.

“Grace’s placement on ball shots is unbelievable,” Hartman said. “I knew I needed to move her around a lot and hit winners when I had the opportunity.”

The wins were big individually for Hartman and Costalonga but they weren’t quite enough to push the Pirates into second place as a team. Colorado Academy came out as the team runner-up with 37 points.

D’Evelyn came into the morning having already clinched its second straight team championship. The Jags had all seven positions playing championship matches and ended up with four winners. Sofia Cieslewicz won the team’s only singles championship, taking No. 3 over Colorado Academy’s Lila Paton 1-6, 6-0, 6-1.

“I was trying not to get nervous,” Cieslewicz said. “I was focusing on the ball rather than the player on the other side.”

D’Evelyn claimed four titles, St. Mary’s won two and Holy Family took the final championship as Kylie Horning and Alesandra Wise won the No. 4 doubles championship.

Claiming the team title was a big goal for the Jags considering they returned 10 of their 11 players from last year’s championship team.

Advancing every position to championship matches won them the team title on Friday so each player could go into their matches focused on the task in front of them. But the results are a reminder that winning a tennis championship in any position is always a tough goal to achieve.

“When you get to state, everyone is good,” coach Woody Oliver said. “It’s the best of the best so the fact that we got all seven lines to that point is a massive accomplishment. And to get four of the seven lines to win, we’re extremely proud.”

Colorado Academy brought home some additional hardware as the Mustangs also won the Vicky Mazarrato Sportsmanship Award.