NHS girls tennis poised for state

The Niwot High School girls tennis team had a busy week April 16-21, with three matches capped off by a tournament at Cherry Creek.

The week began with a match against Kent Denver, a perennial powerhouse in tennis. Although the Cougars came out on the short end of a 1-6 score, Coach Aimee Hites wasn't disappointed. "We played Kent Denver really close," Hites said. "It was actually the only match we've played all year with all of our lineup there."

Freshman Saha Kolli, who is undefeated on the year at No. 2 singles, was the only Cougar in the winning column against Kent Denver. "We knew she was good, but we didn't expect that," Hites said of the freshman's undefeated season. Kolli won tiebreakers against both Fairview and Valor Christian along the way.

Niwot's next match, against league foe Mountain View, produced a 7-0 victory for Niwot, in spite of three varsity players being absent.

The easy victory was followed by a tough match against another perennial power, Cheyenne Mountain. The Cougars were missing their top singles player, Alys Pop, who has committed to play tennis at Ithaca College in New York next year, as well as Anne Haley, who is part of the No. 1 doubles duo.

The Cougars were scheduled to play a tournament at Cherry Creek, a Class 5A power, on Friday and Saturday, but the weather canceled the Saturday portion of the tournament.

The singles players for the Cougars have shined all season. In addition to Poff and Kolli, No. 3 singles player Tracy Yu only lost to Cheyenne Mountain last week. "She hasn't lost to any other player in Class 4A," Hites said.

The new format at state is not popular with Hites or her squad. Rather than have a team tournament in Pueblo as was the case before last season, the state meet is broken up into a team tournament where higher seeds host the early rounds, and the finals are played at Denver's City Park. This is followed by an individual tournament that lacks the camaraderie of the team tournament. Some of the Cougars, including Pop, will miss the individual portion due to conflicts with IB testing.

As of April 12, Niwot was ranked seventh by CHSAA in Class 4A in the state, while recent opponents Cheyenne Mountain (1) and Kent Denver (3) were ranked even higher. The final rankings and tournament brackets announced April 24 have Niwot seeded fifth, matched against 12th-seeded Dakota Ridge in the first round, at Niwot High on April 26 at 3:30 p.m.