3A Girls Tennis: Third Time’s a Charm for Colorado Academy’s Mira Leon
By Alan Versaw
Photo: Alan Versaw
COLORADO SPRINGS – Up 5-4 in the second set of the 3A Girls Colorado Individual State Tennis Championships, Colorado Academy’s Mira Leon felt an unpleasant rush of déjà vu. One day short of a year ago, she was in a nearly identical position against Ellie White of St. Mary’s Academy. White went on to claim the second set, and the third after it, to win the crown.
“It was the same exact story,” Leon explained, “I won the first set. I was up in the second set, and then I started losing the second set and lost the third set. So, I was trying to do anything to not let that happen again.”
Unfortunately for Vail Christian’s Alexa Branch, she experienced the misfortune of facing an older, wiser Leon this year. Down 4-5 and with momentum plausibly starting to turn in her favor, Branch would serve for the critical point in the match.
All Branch needed was to hold service to force the second set into extra points to break the tie. Once that happened, it would be anyone’s guess what might happen next.
“She’s a very good player. I started getting tight because obviously I didn’t want the same thing to happen again,” Leon confided. “So I just tried to roll it in the court and keep it deeper.”
Keeping her shots deeper paid off for Leon late in the match, as she was consistently able to force errors in long volleys against the Vail Christian junior simply by keeping the ball in play, landing her shots within a foot or two of the baseline. And, by the final point in the match, Leon’s control was more than a bit reminiscent of her domination in the first set that yielded a convincing 6-1 triumph there.
Playing more to position herself for the next shot than to try to put Branch away with each stroke, Leon forced Branch into covering the full expanse of the court to return Leon’s shots. Branch came to the net frequently in the first set, but there was generally a price to be paid, as Leon would return a lob to the back of the court. Branch would eventually forego the strategy of coming to the net in the second set, an outcome which also helped her to tighten up the scoring in the that set.
Branch’s early tendency to come to the net failed to catch Leon off guard, “Their coaches all enforce strong net play, so all their players crash the net whenever they can. When people do that, they tend to come way too close to the net, so that’s why I lobbed so much.”
As the clouds parted and temperatures started to rise in the second set, Leon’s strategy began paying off handsomely in the final point. Between serves, Leon’s recovery periods were noticeably shorter than Branch’s. Careful shot placement was minimizing court coverage for Leon even as it was maximizing the coverage demands for Branch.
For those who watch the finer points of tennis carefully, the difference in Leon’s play last year to this was likely noticeable. The Leon of 2025 was more expressive and her emotions worn more on her sleeve. It was a different story in 2026.
“I was a lot more vocal last year, so I wanted to control it this year,” she explained. “It’s so much calmer and easier to play when you’re not worrying and having the ‘last play’ mentality.”
By Leon’s demeanor today, you would have been hard pressed to determine of her last shot had strayed out of bounds or hit the corner of the court just beyond the reach of Branch’s racquet.
Leon went on to credit a coach at Colorado Academy for her change in play.
“We have a mental coach at our school who works with all the varsity sports,” Leon explained. “She helped a lot this season.”
A state title at No. 1 singles counts as solid evidence that coach is earning her pay.
If nobody finds a way to shake Leon’s calm in 2027, prospects look strong for a repeat individual state title in her senior season. After runner-up finishes in both 2024 and 2025, Leon’s game has risen to a new level.
In other matches of the day, Shannon Schmidt of Prospect Ridge Academy claimed the No. 2 singles title, while Leon’s teammate Annika Bhandari would prevail in No. 3 singles. In doubles matches, Eaton’s tandem of Madi Smith and Trin Salberg went home with the No. 1 doubles crown, and Aya Kinoshita and Evelyn South doubled Eaton’s fun by winning at No. 2 doubles. Nisha Gupta and Sophia Do upheld D’Evelyn’s tradition of excellence in girls’ tennis by claiming the No. 3 doubles crown, while Sorenna Cooper and Olivia Babbitt brought home a state title for St. Mary’s Academy at No. 4 doubles.
No. 1 Singles: Mira Leon (Junior, Colorado Academy) def. Alexa Branch (Junior, Vail Christian), 6-1, 6-4
No. 2 Singles: Josephine Carter (Sophomore, Severance) def. Shannon Schmidt (Junior, Prospect Ridge Academy), 7-6, 6-2
No. 3 Singles: Annika Bhandari (Freshman, Colorado Academy) def. Myla Moore (Senior, Severance), 6-0, 6-3
No. 1 Doubles: Madi Smith/Trin Salberg (Eaton) def. Elise Yang/Sheena Wu (Colorado Academy), 6-1, 6-2
No. 2 Doubles: Camden Allen/Iris Blanch (Vail Christian) def. Aya Kinoshita/Evelyn South (Eaton), 6-3, 7-6
No. 3 Doubles: Nisha Gupta/Sophia Do (D’Evelyn) def. Sabrina Nabonsal/Paige Asbury (Vail Christian), 6-2, 6-3
No. 4 Doubles: Angela Leider/Julia Leiden (D’Evelyn) def. Sorenna Cooper/Olivia Babbitt (St. Mary’s Academy), 6-1, 5-7, 6-1
