Durango will face Canon City on Wednesday at home in first round
The Durango High School girls tennis team poses for a photo after winning the Hornet Invitational in Pueblo on Saturday. (Courtesy Darren Tarshis)
The Durango High School girls tennis team has built momentum all season, resulting in the Demons making the 4A team state playoffs for the first time since 2023.
Momentum started to pick up with wins over Delta and Montrose in late March. More road wins against Grand Junction Central and Pueblo West followed, and the highlight of the season so far was Durango winning the Hornet Invitational in Pueblo on Saturday.
The 12-team Hornet Invitational was the biggest tournament the Demons have won in eight years under head coach Darren Tarshis. Durango took a step back in the win column with a loss to Fruita Monument on Tuesday, but Durango’s spot in the playoffs was already sealed before then. The No. 7 seed Demons will host No. 10 Canon City on Wednesday at 1 p.m.
“Our team has been getting better every week,” Tarshis said. “It’s still fun to see them playing the best that they’ve played all season. We are really just using this home match (against Fruita) as a warm-up match for tomorrow’s playoffs against Canon City, which the team is really excited about.”
Durango won the Hornet Invitational with 25 points, followed by Palmer Ridge in second with 17 and Fountain Valley in third with 11 points. It was Durango’s fourth tournament of the season. All the travel and matches have really paid off for the Demons, according to Tarshis.
Three of the four doubles teams finished first for Durango at the Hornet Invitational, a key reason the Demons emerged victorious. Tarshis said the team changed up the doubles pairings about a month into the season. Since then, Durango’s doubles have had a lot of success as the chemistry continues to grow after several matches together.
Junior Natalie Christensen has been Durango’s No. 1 singles player, and she came in third at the Hornet Invitational. Christensen was also one of the few players to win her match against Fruita on Tuesday.
“My goal is not to win,” Christensen said. “My goal is just to play because if you start playing for the points, it doesn’t turn out super well.”
Christensen won her first match against Canon City’s Gwen Hunter, 6-0, 6-1, before beating Sierra’s Giselle Gomez, 6-0, 6-0 in the second round. Christensen’s lone loss of the tournament was to Palmer Ridge’s Maddy Truong, 1-6, 6-4, 0-1 (5-10).
Wednesday’s playoff match will be the first time Christensen has been in the team state playoffs. She knows it can be tough to play singles, and she credited her team with cheering her on and creating a positive environment. The group cohesion has been great since the players are friends with each other.
Christensen went from playing No. 2 singles last year to top singles this year. It motivated her to practice more in the offseason. She thinks she’s gotten better at strategy in the match.
Sophomore Ella Claassen also had a quality Hornet Invitational, finishing second in No. 2 singles for the Demons. She won in the first two rounds by a combined score of 24-4. In the semifinals, Claassen lost a super tough match to Pueblo East’s Haley White, 4-6, 7-5, 0-1 (10-5).
Ella Claassen of Durango High School returns the ball while competing as the No. 2 singles player against Delta on March 27. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)
Jerry McBride
Claassen is excited for the state playoffs. She’s worked a lot on her shot selection and her stamina.
“It’s physical stamina, but it’s also having the mental game to stay in the points for long amount of times,” Claassen said. “So, for 15-plus ball rallies, eventually you get impatient and just want to hit the ball hard, but knowing that, no, it’s okay, I can stay in this.”
Junior Annabeth Hanson finished first in No. 3 singles for the Demons at the Hornet Invitational. She easily defeated her first two opponents and had a 6-4, 6-3 win against Canon City in the semifinals. In the finals, she beat Emme Bustos from Pueblo County, 6-3, 6-3.
“I had the patience of allowing my opponent to make a mistake, keeping my serves really consistent and powerful, and then also figuring out what shots they didn’t like,” Hanson said about the Hornet Invitational. “So even if I preferred hitting deep ground strokes, if they couldn’t hit a lob, then I would just lob that.”
Hanson is super excited about hosting a playoff match on Wednesday. She’s looking forward to the high-level competition. Hanson credits her team with fighting through adversity to make it stronger.
The No. 1 doubles pairing of senior Madelyn Agre and sophomore Piper Reese took care of business by finishing first at the Hornet Invitational. They beat Palmer Ridge in a three-set thriller, 4-6, 6-3, 12-10. Durango’s No. 2 doubles pairing of junior Nicolina Lasher and sophomore Marguerite Douglas had a thrilling semifinals win over Pueblo West, 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (10-6), before falling in the finals to Palmer Ridge, 3-6, 1-6.
Durango’s No. 3 doubles pairing of sophomore Willa Rider and junior Zoe Boespflug finished first after another three-set thriller, beating Palmer Ridge, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (14-12) to add to Durango’s point total at the Hornet Invitational. The No. 4 doubles pairing of junior Sophia Dainty Guilfoyle and sophomore Georgia Barrow escaped with a three-set win over Pueblo West in the semifinals to crush Canon City in the finals, 6-1, 6-1.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
