The Durango Demons swept the Montezuma-Cortez tennis team on Tuesday at Parque de Vida in Cortez, 7-0.
M-CHS senior Raquel Lucero dropped the first set of the No. 1 singles match to junior Maggie Hackett, 6-1. Lucero seemed to catch up with Hackett’s powerful serve in the second set, and although she got as close as 4-5, Hackett took the next game to win the set, 6-4.
With No. 2 singles player Skye Cole absent, M-CHS senior Kristin Pierce filled in, playing in her first singles match.
Taking on Durango senior Hannah Liberman, Pierce eventually fell, 1-6, 2-6, but head coach Catherine Anliker was impressed with her performance considering the circumstances.
“This is her first time coming out in singles and she did really well,” said Anliker. “She was a little apprehensive about playing singles because she’s only played doubles, but she did really well and I was proud of how she played.”
Senior Laurel Chappell came the closest to giving the Lady Panthers a win.
She scattered shots just inside the back of the box in the first set to jump out to a 4-1 lead over Durango senior Hailee Pritchard.
Pritchard pulled within one game, trailing 5-4, before Chappell finished the set with a lob shot over Pritchard’s head to win, 6-4.
In the second set, it was Pritchard who jumped out to a 4-1 lead. And although Chappell dropped in two backwards over-the-head shots, Pritchard went on to win 6-1.
After splitting sets, the two seniors played a tiebreaker – the first to ten points, win by two.
“I think it puts a little more pressure on them,” Anliker said of the tiebreaker. “Because instead of playing a whole third set, it puts more pressure on every point.”
Chappell took the first two points to lead 2-0, but Pritchard answered with three consecutive points, and would later lead 6-3.
Chappell battled, but eventually fell in the tiebreaker, 10-7, in the tightest match of the day.
“I thought she did really well,” said Anliker. “It was a close match and she was fighting through a lot of the points, and there were a lot of close points.”
The Demons swept the doubles matches in more convincing fashion.
Ellie Gervais and Emily West defeated Andria Battle and Angel Veach (6-1, 6-2), Chloe West and Jenna Engelken took down Kayla Hageman and Jennifer Sturman (6-1, 6-1) and Emma Hackett and Lily Chick finished the sweep by beating Courtney Kocourek and Alyssa Utley (6-1, 6-0).
Missing three team members, the Lady Panthers were forced to forfeit the final doubles match.
Anliker said that the forfeit was unfortunate, but noted that she expects to have a full roster for the Lady Panthers’ next matches on Friday.
M-CHS (2-4, 1-4 4A/5A Southwestern League), will take on Glenwood Springs (2-2, 1-1 4A Region 8 League) and Grand Junction (5-3, 1-0 4A/5A Southwestern League) on Friday at Canyon View Park in Grand Junction.