It has been a big week for the Thompson Valley girls tennis team.
Tuesday, the Eagles defeated Timnath to secure their second consecutive league championship. Two days later, they defeated crosstown rival Loveland, 6-1.
With regional tournaments less than two weeks away, Thompson Valley is surging toward the finish after having to replace eight of the 11 players who made up their seven lines at the end of last season.
Among those returners has been senior Gennevieve White, who advanced to state last season with junior Maddie Wilcken at No. 4 doubles. Wilcken is the team’s No. 2 singles player this year, and White’s new partner has been senior Emma Earhart at 2 doubles. The pair has gone 5-2 in duals this season.
“It’s gone really good,” White said of partnering with Earhart. “We both are seniors this year, so we’ve been able to just connect and really have fun with our last season together. It was definitely different at first getting used to each other because I think we’re both kind of quiet, but we got to know each other.
“We communicated more, and then as matches went on, we just have fun, talk to each other and we’re able to go in and put points away.”
White and Earhart won their match against Loveland’s Karamea Omlid and Leah Swahlen on Thursday.
Leading the Eagles’ lines this season has been sophomore Ainsley Cronin, who moved from 2 doubles last season to 1 singles this year. She and her teammate, then-senior Avery Gibbs, advanced to the third-place match at last year’s 4A state tournament.
She has adjusted well to the spot in which she plays the best player the Eagles’ opposing team has all season long. She has gone 4-3 in dual matches including wins in her past three — against Northridge, Timnath and then Loveland’s Makena Cleveland on Thursday.
“It started out hard because we lost a lot of our varsity team and I was friends with a lot of the seniors,” Cronin said. “They helped me through a lot of stuff being a freshman on varsity. So, it was a hard transition to lose all of that. But I think this year I put my mind on being improved a lot more because I have two more years left in tennis.”
Playing at state last season as a freshman was a valuable experience, especially with her mindset, she said. Thursday, she defeated Cleveland, the Red Wolves’ lone returning state qualifier and one of two seniors for Loveland, 6-3, 6-2.
Thompson Valley also got wins Thursday from Wilcken at 2 singles over Loveland’s Kaylee Omlid; Penny Gilbert and Payton Reichelderfer at 1 doubles over Loveland’s Addie Perez and Harper Bassett; Madi Evig and Caroline Aiken at 3 doubles over Loveland’s Maddie Estergard and Audrey Terpstra; and Sophia Farrell and Sophia Railsback at 4 doubles over Loveland’s Finley Crockett and Riley Stone.
Loveland’s lone win in the dual came at 3 singles, where Charlotte Buxton defeated Thompson Valley’s Megan Clingan.
The Eagles have come a long way from the beginning of the season when there were questions about who would fill the vacant spots left by last year’s graduating seniors.
“We come to practice focused every day,” White said. “We just go out, put in the work and then at matches we just come out pre-point ready, come out strong and play our game and have fun.”
“It has been a really awesome season,” Cronin added. “It’s really great that we won conference champions with losing all of our seniors. It’s been a lot of hard work. At practice, we come and we work hard every day.”
Loveland, meanwhile, has spent the season adjusting to a new coach and playing some of the toughest 5A teams in Northern Colorado in its conference.
The team has been led by Cleveland, who has moved up to 1 singles from 3 singles this season and faced many Northern Colorado heavyweights.
“The competition has been a little harder,” she said. “It’s fun having a lot of competition. I think the competitiveness is good for me and growing as a person.”
For the first time in more than a decade, the team has a new coach. Gordon Cromwell has taken over for Heidi Abrahamson, who led the Red Wolves for 11 seasons.
That, combined with a large contingent of players, has resulted in what Cleveland referred to as a rebuild for the program.
“It’s been great,” Cleveland said. “I think it’s kind of hard to rebuild a program once coaches, I think they were there for like around 10 years, leave. So, Karamea and me, we’re the only seniors, we did a lot to kind of get the team back on its feet and get girls to return. So, I think it’s a really good introduction season for our coaches and I’m glad we have so many girls playing.”
Thompson Valley has one league dual remaining, at Greeley Central on Tuesday. Even if the Eagles lose, they still own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Timnath for the league championship.
Both teams will then compete at the 4A Region 4 tournament hosted by Thompson Valley at North Lake Park on April 29 and Mehaffey Park on April 30.
