Varsity Girls ‘Refuse to Lose,’ Earn Second Tennis State Title

It felt like an entire season’s worth of high school tennis packed into five days of travel, tension, and tenacious competition, but in the end, the journey was more than worth it: On Tuesday, May 12, the Colorado Academy Girls Tennis Team was crowned CHSAA’s 2026 Class 3A State Champion with a convincing 4-2 victory over rival Prospect Ridge Academy, CA’s second Girls Tennis State Title after its first in 2024.

 

“They just refused to lose,” says Head Coach Noah Tondre, named 3A Coach of the Year after the win. “That’s the one really important quality they shared with the girls of two years ago.”

 

When this spring season began, losing may have seemed the likelier possibility. The team roster—loaded with less experienced Ninth- and Tenth-Grade players—kept shifting as commitments and schedules changed; and, of course, Colorado’s spring weather often made putting a string of matches together, let alone victories, a challenge.

But toward the end of the season, according to Tondre, things gelled—just in time for the final sprint that would see CA receive the 3A Sportsmanship Award as well as the State Title. “Every single position was able to contribute.”

The lead-up to the team’s Championship moment began the Thursday before, when they traveled to Colorado Springs for the 3A Individual State Championships. Six of CA’s seven positions had qualified in regional playoffs, and over three days, two hotel nights, and a non-stop menu of to-go meals, the squad completed a total of 21 matches on the way to claiming first place Saturday finishes at No. 1 and No. 3 Singles, second at No. 1 Doubles, and third at No. 2 Doubles. 

 

Individual State Champions Mira Leon, a Junior at No. 1 Singles, and Annika Bhandari, a Ninth Grader at No. 3, would help lead the Mustangs to their next critical victory: Monday’s weather-postponed Team State Championship Semifinals versus Vail Christian High School, a two-hour drive from CA after the weekend away. 

 

That win over No. 1-ranked Vail was never guaranteed. While it’s true that Leon had already beaten her No. 1 Singles Semifinal opponent once to capture the Individual Title Saturday, it was a long night of back-and-forth competition for the CA squad on Vail’s home courts.

 

After three CA doubles pairs lost their matches quickly, “It wasn’t looking good,” relates Tondre. Leon was having serve trouble, and No. 2 Singles player Finley Wells, another standout Ninth Grader, was cramping. Yet somehow, vocal support from teammates and parents began to turn the tide, and by the end of the night, Leon, Bhandari, and the No. 1 Doubles pair of Juniors Sheena Wu and Elise Yang had won their matches, with Wells recovering just in time to seal the 4-3 CA victory.

 

The team, ranked fifth in Class 3A this season, was ecstatic to celebrate their semifinal win over top-ranked Vail, but quickly came back to earth as they realized they’d have to play for the Team Championship in less than 24 hours, after a return drive to CA that wouldn’t get them home until midnight.

According to Leon, named 3A Player of the Year, “I got coffee in the morning, I ate a lot, tried to refuel ... but I guess I was a little concerned” about the Finals against the Miners, who had defeated CA earlier during the regular season.

Still, with adrenaline and a string of recent victories powering these student-athletes, there wasn’t much to be concerned about at Denver Tennis Park on Tuesday, after all. Says Tondre, “Through that entire bus ride back home from Vail, the girls kept telling each other, ‘We’re going to sweep Prospect Ridge tomorrow. We’re going to sweep them.’ That confidence and belief fully kicked in.”

That momentum carried CA through the fifth and final long day of play.

 

The first to put CA on the board was the No. 2 Doubles pair of Ninth Graders Kate Johnson and Klara Kiesey. For Johnson, the moment was extra special: Her older sister, Anna Johnson ’24, had been one half of the No. 1 Doubles team that helped CA clinch its first Championship trophy in 2024.

 

Next to score was Bhandari, the Ninth Grader who had been the team’s “rock” throughout the spring, explains Tondre. “Annika reminds me of Bjorn Borg back in the day, who used to be called ‘The Iceman.’ You can’t tell by looking at her if she’s way ahead or way behind; she gets nervous like anyone else, but she just handles it so well.”

 

Then, it was Prospect Ridge players who notched match wins to tie the score at two apiece. Fans on both sides held their breath as the competition came down to the three matches still in progress: No. 1 Singles (Leon), No. 2 Singles (Wells), and No. 4 Doubles (Senior Emery Mikula and Sophomore Claire Fisher).

“Mira is such an amazing athlete,” recounts Tondre. But when she got tight and started falling behind against her Prospect Ridge opponent, Tondre called her over to the side of the court, got her to laugh and eat and drink—the only real “controllables” there are in tennis, says Tondre—and everything changed. She started having fun—what Tondre calls “playing loose”: “Swing loose, swing aggressive, and look to get in when you’re up.”

 

Leon stormed back for the win, thrilling the CA crowd, and just a few seconds later, even bigger cheers erupted as Mikula and Fisher won their No. 4 Doubles match to clinch the State Title for CA. No. 4 Doubles clinched the Championship in 2024, too, notes Tondre.

 

“And I said the same thing then that I did this year,” he relates. “These rival teams are all so tough—the season isn’t about the individual wins. It’s about getting a little better every day until you peak at just the right time. And this year, just like 2024, that’s exactly what they did.”

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