The Durango High School girls tennis team is off and running after the season’s opening matches this week.
The Demons lost a tight dual match with Steamboat Springs that started Thursday and ended Friday after a long day of Western Slope Open Tournament play.
Durango and Steamboat were locked up in a 3-3 tie when darkness made play impossible Thursday evening, as Chloe and Emily West were about to go to a third set tiebreaker against Steamboat’s Jordan Hetrick and Natalie Simon.
After struggling to fill the position, new Demons head coach Sue Lawton and assistant coach Linda Fitts-Liberman couldn’t make the trip to Grand Junction. However, longtime Durango head tennis coach Dave Weisfeldt filled in and will help the team as needed throughout the season.
“We’re just happy to be out here playing, and there’s always some tough competition in this tournament,” Weisfeldt said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “There was a lot of excitement, and the kids played hard.”
Hannah Liberman’s 6-0, 6-3 win against Steamboat’s Lily Fox got the Demons on the board. Ellie Gervais and Hailee Pritchard added a dominant 6-1, 6-2 doubles win while Ruby DeCora and Ryann Daly took their match 6-3, 6-2.
Nearly 24 hours later, after already playing four matches, Durango dropped the tiebreaker 13-11.
Beforehand, Durango fought through a gauntlet of the state’s top talent in the Western Slope Open. Each of the singles players, Sarah Harrelson, Maggie Hackett and Liberman won their final matches of the day and will compete in Saturday’s action. In doubles, each Demons team managed to win a match in Saturday’s tournament play and will also compete Saturday.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
