The Durango High School girls tennis team will send one player to a third-place match at the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 4A Girls Tennis State Championships on Saturday at City Park in Pueblo.
After a loss in the semifinals, Mavis Edwards, the Demon’s No. 1 singles player, battled through the playback bracket to earn a spot in the third-place match.
DHS sits in seventh place in the team standings with 16 points.
It’s a two-team race for the team title. Niwot leads with 69 points, followed by nine-time defending champion Cheyenne Mountain with 64 points. Kent Denver and Mullen are tied for third with 23 points. Niwot is the last school to beat Cheyenne Mountain at state, with its last win coming in 2008.
Edwards, a sophomore at Bayfield High School who placed second in No. 1 singles as a freshman, fell in the semifinals with a 6-0, 6-1 loss to Niwot freshman Lucy Lu, not only one of the top players in the state, but ranked 106th in the nation.
“This girl is a top-level player in the country,” DHS assistant coach Vivian Edwards, Mavis’ mother, said of Lu. “It’s not that Mavis couldn’t get going, it’s just that this girl is notches above Mavis.
“(Lu) is such a high-level seasoned player, playing five days a week all her life, traveling nationally. She puts everything into it. This is her life. Mavis, for as good as she is, she’s never going to be able to compete with someone with this much dedication and the amount of time she puts into it.”
The loss dropped Edwards into the playback bracket where she met Liberty’s Hana Kimmey, who lost to Lu in the quarterfinals 6-1, 6-1. With a spot in the third-place match on the line, Edwards took care of Kimmey 6-2, 6-4.
“That was a great matchup,” coach Edwards said. “Mavis was serving very well and held serve, and Hana, in my opinion, was a little bit worn out from her very long three-set match she had today. That was a really long, grueling match for Hana.”
Kimmey beat Palmer Ridge’s Keelie Bennett 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 to advance to face Mavis Edwards.
In No. 1 doubles, Durango’s Rebecca Bowers and Emma Jaber earned a playback match against Alex Cregan and Grace Ensor of Air Academy. The Demons knocked off the Kadets 6-2, 6-3 to stay alive and met Kent Denver’s Julia Doyle and Isabel Haifleigh with a spot in the third-place match up for grabs.
Against Kent Denver, the Demons couldn’t get the advantage and fell 6-1, 6-4 to end their season.
“I feel that they were very happy with how they played,” coach Edwards said of Bowers and Jaber’s two matches Friday. “Emma and Rebecca had a few ups and downs, but by the time they played that last match, our team played very well, but Kent (Denver) was just one notch better than us. And it’s OK to lose to better team.”
Durango’s No. 3 doubles team of Laura Clark and Mira Joyner moved into the playback bracket and advanced with a forfeit from Cañon City’s Aubrey Hermreck and Allison Lancaster.
“That was very fortunate for us and very tragic for Cañon City that they had to leave,” coach Edwards said. “We ended up getting to play (Air Academy), and that was a very good match. We started off kind of strong, and then the other team caught on with how to play us and we lost the match.”
Air Academy’s Samantha Cordasco and Kate Danis bested Clark and Joyner 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the third-place match.
Mavis Edwards will face Cheyenne Mountain’s Morgan Hall in the third place match, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday at Pueblo City Park. The two have some history on the courts, as they competed against each other in junior programs. But since Mavis Edwards has turned more of her attention to playing club volleyball year-round, they haven’t met on the tennis court as often.
“Two or so years ago, Mavis was playing a lot of tennis against these girls like Hana and Morgan, and they’ve continued on with tennis and Mavis has moved to do more volleyball, so we haven’t had a matchup with Morgan in a while,” coach Edwards said. “We’re not that familiar with Morgan’s game anymore, so I’m expecting a really tough match.”
kschneider@durangoherald.com
