DENVER – Normally the Class 4A state tennis champion is hoisting its team trophy earlier in the day in a little spicier temperatures.
But the old days of crowning team champions are over. That means there is no more hoisting a trophy at Pueblo City Park. The venue now is Denver City Park, closer to the campus of Kent Denver, the newly crowned 4A team champion.
To say the Sun Devils were dominant, doesn’t do their performance justice. They were perfect. They rolled to a 7-0 win over Cheyenne Mountain, the very team they shared the team championship with a year ago.
“Last year it was kind of a bummer that we split,” No. 2 singles player Will Moldenhauer said. “We wanted that title last year and this year it’s cool that one team or another was going to get it.”
The Sun Devils got it by playing out a dual that has been more standardized in regular season play. They needed four wins of the seven matches to clinch the championship. They were considered favorites simply by the fact that four positions had come away with individual state titles in Pueblo over the weekend.
They didn’t settle for four, they went for seven.
And for some players or teams, it was a chance at redemption from the individual bracket. Moldenhauer was one such player who made it to the final of his bracket only to come up short of a championship. The No. 1 doubles team of Seb Boada and Tyler Haymons is another example. They lost a three-set heartbreaker to Colorado Academy on Friday so getting a win on a day the team won a state title meant the world to them. Especially since they were the ones who scored the championship-winning point.
“I found out at match point when it was 40-15 and (My teammates) told me,” Boada said. “I figured alright, I guess I have to win state. It feels really because our season is over now and it’s better to finish with a (win) than a tough loss against CA.”
This is the second team title in a row, including last year’s shared title with Cheyenne Mountain. The Sun Devils won five straight from 2013-17 and have a similar team pedigree to the teams that put together that stretch of gold.
The need to look further than the talent of No. 1 single standout Nathan Gold is a prime example. After cruising to an individual title over the weekend, he was dominant once again in a 6-0, 6-2 win over Andrew Ballenger.