The Lady Panthers tennis team hosted three matches at the Harkendorff Tennis Courts on Friday and Saturday after being on the road for more than a month.
Although Montezuma-Cortez High School (3-8, 0-5 4A Southwestern League) fell 5-2 to Aspen, 7-0 to Fruita Monument, and 4-3 to Montrose, the level of play increased at home.
We got 22 players that were able to play tennis today and get some good experience, M-CHS coach Dan Wood said after the Montrose match Saturday. I thought the sportsmanship was good on both sides.
Against Montrose, it was tied up at 3-3 after Emily Walck and Raena Conklin won a hard-fought match at No. 3 doubles over Stephanie Williams and Ashley Lavato, 3-6, 7-5, 12-10.
It was exciting. We got really close yesterday in the 10-point tiebreaker. Its nice to have been able to work as hard as we have been, and then actually win, Conklin said.
Conklin and Walck lost 2-6, 6-1, 8-10 in a tiebreaker match to Brooke Altman and Liz Seubert of Aspen on Friday. The duo lost to Camile Kovach and Laven Cyphes of Fruita, 2-6, 2-6 on Friday as well. But the duo put it together on Saturday.
I actually feel really good. I think that when it came up to the time when we really needed to step up, I feel like we did, especially with our serves. We got our serves when we needed to, Walck said.
That set the stage for an epic No. 4 doubles match between Lady Panthers Ysaline Spaey and Jordan Valdez, and Diana Garcia and Angelica Nevarez to decide the whole thing.
Montrose took the first set, 6-3, and M-CHS bounced back to force the tiebreaker by winning, 7-5. Each team battled to a 7-7 tie, and then Spaey and Valdez took an 8-7 lead. The Lady Panthers couldnt get the match point and it was later tied at 10 apiece. In the end, Garcia and Nevarez were just a couple shots better and won the set 12-10, clinching the win for Montrose.
It was a very good match, Wood said. Its just the way things go sometimes. We had a chance to win the whole darn thing. They didnt win it with one of our errors. They won it with two great shots in the end. So you just say, Nice shot, and move on.
Sadee Threlkeld won at No. 2 singles over Hailee Phillips, 7-5, 6-4, to go 1-2 on Friday and Saturday. Brie Odell finished 2-1 over the three matches at No. 3 singles, including at 6-4, 6-6, 10-8 win against Kellie Sheehan of Montrose.
I just really tried to stay focused and just played my hardest, Odell said. I lost to Fruita because theyre a good team and theyre a bigger school. I had a close match with Aspen and won pretty good against Montrose. I hope I do good at regionals.
Andi Pickens and Jessica Gonzalez went 1-2 at No. 1 doubles. They got a win against Aspens Hannah Fever and Emma Kaplan, 6-3, 6-2.
We played three good teams this weekend, and we were competitive. We were a lot better than I thought wed be against Aspen, Wood said. Everybody was telling me that Aspen was going to be a really tough match for us. We were actually just a couple of games away from beating Aspen. I feel good about that.
The Lady Panthers will be at regionals in Grand Junction on Thursday at 9 a.m. with matches to later be announced.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at bobbya@cortezjournal.com.