Charlie Kirtland's resiliency highlights strong week from Niwot boys tennis

Being a freshman on varsity comes with its challenges. Instead of typically facing opponents of a similar age in middle school, there's a chance that someone four years older stands on the opposite side of the court.

Charlie Kirtland is currently experiencing the ups and downs of being a freshman on the Niwot High School boys tennis team. He entered the season looking to claim Niwot's No. 3 singles spot and after impressing in his varsity debut against Dawson School in mid-August, he hasn't left the lineup much since.

The youngster is 5-3 overall through Sept. 13 but, more importantly, he has gained the trust of head coach Aimee Hites to ride with him through his development. Hites' patience recently paid dividends, though, when Kirtland displayed some impressive maturity and growth.

Kirtland's freshman season has included a few three-set defeats, one of which came against Mullen senior Carson Duke (7-5, 3-6, 3-6) in an overall Niwot win on Sept. 12. However, just five days later on Sept. 17, Kirtland and Duke were paired once again in the Kent Denver Sun Devil Invitational. This time, it was Kirtland who came out a winner.

"I was super proud of him because mentally, that was huge for him to come back and do that," Hites said. "He's lost a lot of third-setters this year that were really close and he needed that, and he played really well."

His display of resiliency was still just a snapshot of what Hites has been seeing all season.

"He's young and he's maturing quick," Hites said. "I love watching him. He's got all the talent in the world and there's not a kid at the three-singles that he's not capable of beating. He's just got to believe that too, and I think he's getting there, so that's good."

Niwot as a whole also made some strides during the week. After the 4-3 win at Mullen, the Cougars swept Thompson Valley 7-0 the following day before losing to Colorado Academy, 5-2, on Sept. 15. No. 1 singles senior Luke Weber and No. 2 singles junior LiChen Liao each won against Colorado Academy, but with Niwot not being at full strength in other matches, the afternoon ended in defeat.

In the Sun Devil Invitational, which included the familiar foes of Mullen, Kent Denver and Colorado Academy, Hites said it was a "good showing" by Niwot. Liao won the No. 2 singles and Weber placed second in the No. 1 singles, although none of Niwot's doubles teams won.

"Our one-doubles again was half JV because one of our players was out of town, so that was unfortunate because I think they could have done really well," Hites said. The rest of doubles - the two, three and four doubles - played well. We didn't get any wins there, but (it went) really well, tighter scores than before."

The Cougars (8-2, 7-0 4A Region 5) now have only Riverdale Ridge on Sept. 20 and a trip to Kent Denver on Sept. 22 before the Class 4A state meet on Oct. 13. Hites expects her whole team to qualify for the new-look state tournament, which places more emphasis on individual matches as opposed to total team scores.