After a tough match against Vail Christian and a difficult tournament in Grand Junction, the Durango High School girls tennis were victorious for the first time this season, winning at home against Delta on Friday and Montrose on Saturday.
The Demons beat Delta, 4-3, and Montrose, 7-0, as the final home match on Wednesday against Fruita Monument quickly approaches.
“It was nice to have back-to-back home wins to really kick off a really busy month of competition,” Durango head coach Darren Tarshis said.
Junior Natalie Christensen led the way for Durango at No. 1 doubles, dominating her Delta opponent, 6-1, 6-0, and her Montrose opponent, 6-1, 6-1. Tarshis has been impressed with how Christensen has improved her decision-making from last year. She puts a lot more thought into the types of shots she uses, which really makes her a good all-around player since her movement and technique have always been strong.
At No. 2 singles, sophomore Ella Claassen had more of a challenge than Christensen. She lost her Delta match, 3-6, 6-7, but she bounced back on Saturday to win 6-0, 6-4. Tarshis said Claassen has put in a ton of work in the offseason. She’s very comfortable at the net and is ready for the next challenge.
“She started that rebound at the end of her match yesterday,” Tarshis said about Claassen. “She was down by quite a bit in that second set, and she fought back to a tie breaker … She did a great job of not letting one loss carry into her next day. As a first-time singles player for us, we see that sometimes kids start to predict future matches by how they performed in current matches.”
Senior Jordan Kitchens played No. 3 singles on Friday, losing 6-2, 6-7, 4-10. Junior Annabeth Hanson played No. 3 singles on Saturday against Montrose, winning 6-0 and 6-3.
Hanson has been playing tennis since her freshman year, when she fell in love with the sport. After playing doubles last year, she’s primarily moved to singles this year.
“It’s been a pretty big jump, a pretty big change, but I’m really happy with how I’m playing,” Hanson said. “I put in a lot of work in the offseason, and I’m really proud of the outcome.”
Hanson worked a lot on her tennis IQ and her serve in the offseason. She hopes to make state this season.
There was a lot of change in the Durango doubles pairing on Friday and Saturday. One doubles pairing that had success on Saturday were sophomore Willa Rider and junior Nicolina Lasher, winning their match 6-2 and 6-3. It was the first time the two had played together. Both players want to make it to state this year.
“We did well,” Lasher said, “We played consistently and worked well together.”
Durango will honor its two seniors, Kitchens and Madelyn Agre, on Wednesday against Fruita, with matches starting at 1 p.m.