The Lady Spartan tennis team closed their year on a high note, with the No. 2 doubles team of junior Kate Young and senior Krystina Delao and No. 4 doubles team of senior Sarah Chick and junior Rachel Anderson, making it through the Colorado High School Athletics and Activities 3A Region 7 tournament May 5-6 to play at the CHSAA state tournament May 12-13.
“In the last three weeks it’s like a switch flipped,” coach Josh Bechtel said. “It’s really like night and day.”
At state, Young and Delao lost 0-6, 2-6 to Vail Christian, who won the state title, and for their playback match were pitted against Eaton.
The first set against Eaton, which they lost 2-6, was close, Bechtel said, after which it started pouring rain, and the second set postponed until the following morning. They lost the second set 0-6.
Chick and Anderson lost to D’Evelyn 4-6, 4-6 in what Bechtel said was their best match yet. “A volley missed here or there, an overhead missed here or there, that could have made the difference to our winning.”
All four of the doubles girls were new to the team this year. For seniors Chick and Delao, “I can only imagine where they would be now if they had started as freshmen,” Bechtel said.
“With how tough our region was this year I was happy to get anyone to state,” Bechtel said. The region was bigger this year, with eight teams as opposed to the usual six.
The team had an outstanding first day at regionals, but less luck on the second.
Senior Daisha Thompson, at No. 1 singles, took second in the tournament, but lost the playback game against the third-placer.
“It was a bummer,” Bechtel said. “The girl we needed to win who Daisha had beaten already was way up in the match and the other girl made a crazy comeback.”
“Daisha set the bar very high.” Bechtel said of her performance on the team. “None of the success of the rest of the team happens without Daisha as our No. 1 singles player.”
Sophomore Caroline Wooddell, the No. 3 singles player, won her first match but lost her second to place third at regionals. She lost her playback against Pueblo Central 5-7, 4-6. Wooddell was named an all-conference player, with a record of 4-2 in league play.
No. 2 singles player Megan Rhude was also named an all-conference player, 4-2 in league, as were No. 1 doubles seniors Skyler Margos and Lane Baker, 6-0 in league. Bechtel was named coach of the year.
