DENVER — Cheyenne Mountain didn’t require a dramatic victory to clinch the team title this season. And the Red-Tailed Hawks’ coaches and players are fine with that.

The Red-Tailed Hawks, 4A’s No. 1 seed, swept No. 2 Kent Denver 4-0 on Tuesday at Denver Tennis Park and collected the school’s 27th girls’ tennis championship. This also marks the Red-Tailed Hawks’ fourth team title in five years. 

“It’s hard to top the feeling of last year after we won in dramatic fashion,” Cheyenne Mountain coach Dave Adams said. “But this feeling, this feeling never gets old.” 

This year’s rubber match between the Red-Tailed Hawks and Sun Devils was their third matchup in three years. In 2024, Kent Denver won its sixth championship and beat Cheyenne Mountain. But last year, Cheyenne Mountain, 2025’s No. 2 seed, upset Kent Denver in the finals. 

The Red-Tailed Hawks won that tilt 4-2 and didn’t give the Sun Devils an opportunity to reach a pair of wins this year. 

Less than 10 minutes into the finals, the Red-Tailed Hawks’ Sophie Zhou, Cheyenne Mountain’s No. 3 singles, and Alyssa Sadri, No. 2 singles, owned a 3-0 set lead over their opponents. Then, 20 minutes later, both players took a set to build a 1-0 lead. 

This was what Adams expected. During last week’s individual tournament, where the Red-Tailed Hawks collected five of the seven championships, Adams knew his players had the momentum necessary to accomplish their goal.

“What happened last year between us and Kent Denver and how we pulled that off was in my mind and I thought that would be ironic,” Adams said. “But you can’t just turn the tables on us.”

The Red-Tailed Hawks took a 2-0 lead thanks to Sadri and Zhou’s efforts and both swept their opponents. For Zhou, between last week’s individual state championship run and Tuesday’s match, she only dropped three games. 

“It’s a challenge to myself,” Zhou said. “It’s like a game within the game: ‘How many games can I not drop?’ I did that with myself last year and I only dropped like one game during individual state.”

In Sadri’s final five matches, she only dropped one. That came in the individual finals against none other than Kent Denver’s Nora Rapp. Adams said a ghost of Cheyenne Mountain’s past took over both players.

“Maybe the spirit of Becky Varnum (Bucolo) is in both of them,” Adams said. “I had no doubt both of them would bring it. Not only do they not want to lose a set, they don’t want to lose a game.”

Cheyenne Mountain’s No. 3 doubles Ruth Ringer and Ayva Bonicelli and No. 4 doubles Erica Leveille and Eleena Case won their matches in straight sets to clinch the championship for the Red-Tailed Hawks. 

“We were all hoping for this end,” Zhou said. “We were all happy with this ending and I’m happy I got to win my last high school match and that we all won state. It’s a really good ending.”