5A girls tennis: Cherry Creek captures 39th team state title in new dual-style format

DENVER — Cherry Creek girls tennis has reigned over Colorado high school athletics for nearly four decades, and the Bruins’ performance during the Class 5A team championship in Denver on Tuesday illuminated just why.

After taking a 3-2 lead over Fairview with a win from Lorena Cedeno at No. 1 singles at Denver City Park, the state crown hinged on No. 2 singles and No. 3 singles.

Both, of course, split sets.

But just as Anika Sharma (2 singles) and Jiselle Boker (3 singles) were about to put away Fairview’s Stella Laird and Elle Middleton, Mother Nature decided to rear her angry head.

Through large rain, small hail and rolling thunder, the courts at City Park quickly became unplayable. CHSAA officials decided to move the finale indoors to Denver Tennis Park, where Sharma and Boker swiftly put the Knights away to secure their 39th team title.

Sharma’s final hard shot down the left side of Laird’s portion of the court was all the Bruins needed to secure gold, albeit with a bit of drama in between. She handled the adversity like a champion to win 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. Boker won minutes later with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 ending.

“I was just thinking, ‘You know what? Shake it off. I need to keep my head down, keep my head in the game and not get too easy on my game,’” Sharma said. “… I was like, ‘No, I need to finish this. I need to end this. This is the game I need to get. These three points are what I’m here for, what I practiced for this whole time.’ I think it was just really important for me to keep my head down and just play my game and back up myself.”

The season came full-circle for the Bruins, and continued the trend that’s defined 5A girls tennis for the past three seasons: Creek beating out Fairview for the team title.

“We actually had a scrimmage with Fairview in our first scrimmage of the year,” head coach Christin Jacob said. “I was just talking to their coaches about how wonderful it is to see all the girls at all of those positions improve from that first scrimmage to this match. It just says something about how hard they work, which is beautiful. From that scrimmage, we knew that would be tough. It was nice to be able to have something to work towards and improve on.”