Vail Christian girls tennis wins first round game at 3A team state tournament

After sweeping Glenwood Springs and Basalt 7-0, 7-0 on Saturday, the Saints girls tennis team got to work on their first post-season assignment of the spring. They completed it the way they always do.

Vail Christian defeated Lutheran 5-2 on Wednesday at Homestead Club Court in the first round of the 3A team state tournament, moving to 10-0 on the season.

“It was an awesome team win in front of our home crowd,” said head coach J.D. Webster after his No. 5-seeded Saints dispatched the No. 12-seeded Lions.

In previous seasons, individual and team state champions were awarded at the end of a three-day ‘state’ tournament made up of individual player brackets at each position. In 2023, teams from across 3A, 4A and 5A moved to a new format. Now, only individual winners will be crowned in Denver (5A), Pueblo (4A) and Colorado Springs (3A) from May 11-13, while the team race will go through a 16-team bracket in each classification, with schools facing off in a dual format.

Universal Tennis Rating (UTR), strength of league, overall record, strength of
competition, head-to head competition and common opponents was used to seed each team bracket, according to the CHSAANow.com tennis bulletin.

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In Wednesday’s matches, Lutheran got the No. 1 and No. 2 singles wins as Lillie Hendricks defeated Vail Christian’s Annika Iverson (6-4, 3-6, 6-3) and Ella Becker took down Summer Sveum (6-0, 6-3). Jessie Allen claimed the No. 3 singles victory over Brooke Groetken (6-3, 3-6, 6-3).

The Saints dominated in doubles. Juliet Studness and Anna Baker claimed a 6-0, 6-0 win at the No. 1 slot, the No. 2 team of Aria Webster and Kamryn Mitchell rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 victory, Jenna Elalayi and Sofie Brunner cruised 6-2, 6-1 in the No. 3 position and Heidi Iverson and Sofie Elalayi closed things out in the No. 4 spot with a 6-0, 6-1 win.

The win sets up a quarterfinal matchup against No. 4 Peak to Peak on Friday. High seeds will host through the team state semifinals (May 9), with the championship match at Denver City Park on May 16.

Meanwhile, the Region 8 individual tournament is at Canyon View Park from May 4-5. The top two finishers in No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles and No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 doubles at that tournament will advance to the individual state tournament mentioned above, played in Colorado Springs from May 11-13.

“I’m excited to play our second round match against Peak to Peak on Friday,” Webster stated. “We’ve be working so hard for this moment.”