DENVER – The weight of winning one No. 1 singles state championship is heavy, but Alec Rodriguez-Fields made relatively light work of a second on Saturday.
The Regis Jesuit junior and defending 5A individual state champion in the top spot found a familiar foe in his way of a second straight title in Valor Christian senior Jace Nakamura, a state champion himself during his stellar prep career.
Rodriguez-Fields won two previous meetings with Nakamura during the regular season and completed the sweep with a thorough 6-2, 6-1 victory in front of a keenly interested crowd at the Denver Tennis Park.
“Coming in last year and winning, I feel like there’s a lot more on your back to try to come back and do well,” said Rodriguez-Fields, who finished the season undefeated and became the first No. 1 singles repeat state champion in 5A since Regis Jesuit’s Morgan Schilling in 2019 and 2020.
“Even though I won the first two, Jace is obviously a great player and I went into the match thinking he could definitely beat me,” he added. "That kept me focused."
Nakamura won his No. 2 singles state title at Rodriguez-Fields’ expense during the 2023 season, but two years later it was the Raiders’ star who claimed the bragging rights.
Following up on a three-set victory in the finals of the Cherry Creek Invitational and a two-set win at the Full Send Invitational, Rodriguez-Fields came out of the gate on fire and never let up.
“I think I slowed him down and put a lot of pressure on him this time,” Rodriguez-Fields said.
Regis Jesuit ended up with a singles sweep, as seniors Clay Dickey and Adam Rydel defeated Grandview sophomore twins Kaahan and Krish Wani, respectively, in the finals.
Both Raiders had placed multiple times in previous trips to the state tournament, but had never laid claim to state championships. They got it done in vastly different styles as Rydel earned a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Krish Wani, while Dickey battled with Kaahan Wani all the way to a third-set tiebreak before he prevailed 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.
“We both lost to them at the Cherry Creek Invite and we vowed to each other that we wouldn’t lose to them again,” Dickey said.
The four doubles matches held significant intrigue as all four pitted Regis Jesuit against Cherry Creek in a preview of the upcoming 5A team state championship match between the two powerhouse programs — the third straight season of the same matchup — on Oct. 21.
The Bruins have thrived on doubles play in the head-to-heads with Regis Jesuit in years past, but this time it was the duos of coach Laura Jones’ Raiders that proved themselves ready for the challenge with three wins in four matches.
The opening victory went to the Regis Jesuit No. 3 doubles team of junior Beckett Martorella and sophomore Finn Carolan — both first-year varsity players — who set a tone with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Cherry Creek senior Liam Raleigh and junior Spencer Hutchins. It was a message that they hope was sent ahead of the rematch in three days’ time.
“Just showing them that we can beat them and only giving up four games the entire match puts a lot of pressure on them to come and try to swing bigger, which could bring more errors,” Martorella said.
That was followed by a 6-3, 6-2 win for junior Koops Lord and sophomore Will Larkin over Bruins’ senior Tyson Hardy and junior Sam Migliaccio — which avenged two earlier losses to the Cherry Creek duo — and was finished by the No. 2 doubles crown from junior Edward Samuelson and sophomore Reis Cherveny, who took a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Bruins’ sophomore Kapil Bhandaram and senior Adam Eikelberner.
Regis Jesuit’s doubles sweep was prevented by the Cherry Creek No. 4 doubles team of sophomore Sunand Bhandaram and sophomore Ryan Raleigh, who rallied from a set deficit to top Regis Jesuit junior Connor Hickey and freshman Daniel Hickey 2-6, 6-0, 6-3.
“It was an amazing day,” Jones said. “This is such an unpredictable place. You can know a lot about your kids and what’s out there and how things have gone here in the past, but you can’t rely on anything. You just know whatever happens is going to be super amazing and it was for us today.”