Left Hand Valley Courier - All Local, All The Time

The Niwot girls tennis team continued its recent run of dominant play with a sweep of all seven title matches at this year’s Class 4A, Region 5 Tournament, held at the Longmont Recreation Center on May 3 and 4.

In total the Cougars scored 84 points to take first place out of the six-team field, well ahead of runner-up Longmont, which finished with 56 points on the day. Taylor Thulson at number one singles won 6-2, 6-2. Julia Pentz (two singles) and Rachel Drake (three singles) each dropped only one game in their respective matches, each cruising by the same score of 6-1, 6-0. Jewel Ng and Tehnley White--a relatively new pairing at number one doubles after White’s original partner, Sophie Williams, went down with a shoulder injury mid-season--continued to impress, taking their match by a score of 6-3, 6-0.

The day’s only real drama came at number two doubles, where Amanda Duquette and Erin O’Neill won a hard-fought match by the score of 7-6, 6-4. Finishing things off for Niwot were number three doubles team Lily Sieben and Avery O’Neill, by a score of 6-2, 6-1, and number four doubles team Yui Ishikawa and Maedee Trank-Greene, at 6-2, 6-0.

With the Regionals sweep, the Cougars’ team bus will be full on the way to Pueblo this coming weekend, as all members of the varsity are entered into the State Tournament, which will take place May 11-13 at Pueblo City Park.