Steamboat Springs girls tennis had its home opener Friday, hosting a tri-meet against Vail Mountain School and Glenwood Springs at the Steamboat Tennis Center.

The Sailors split the contest, suffering a 7-0 loss to Vail Mountain before taking down the Demons 7-0. The home stretch continued into Tuesday with Steamboat defeating the Aspen Skiers 5-2. 

No. 1 Singles
For years, Steamboat captain Lucia del Haya, a junior, has been able to fend off Vail Mountain School senior Jessie Allen. The Vail squad spent a lot of time this offseason in training and even spent time at camps overseas. 

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Allen’s improvements helped the Vail athlete defeat del Haya 7-5, 6-3. Despite the loss, del Haya managed to fight back later Friday night with a 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 three-setter over her Glenwood opponent. 

Del Haya continued her winning ways Tuesday, defeating her Aspen opponent 6-3, 6-7(5), 12-10. 

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No. 2 Singles 
Steamboat freshman Abby del Haya held her own in her first career home matches. 

Following a tough 6-1, 6-0 loss to her Vail Mountain School opponent, Abby rebounded with her first “double bagel” of the season, winning 6-0, 6-0 over her Demons opponent. Abby won again Tuesday 6-1, 6-0 over Aspen. 

No. 3 Singles 
Junior captain Dylan Quinn suffered a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Vail but regained control with 6-0, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-1 wins over Glenwood and Aspen, respectively. 

Head coach Jason Scicchitano said Quinn completely outplayed her Glenwood opponent “in every way.”

“She overpowered her in groundstroke rallies, hit aces, tough slices and was generally more consistent,” he said. 

No. 1 Doubles 
Lyla Baker and Leslie Jimenez have teamed up this season at No. 1 doubles. The pair went deep against Vail Mountain School after some big serves from Baker, forcing a 7-point tiebreak in the second set. 

Ultimately Vail took the tiebreak 7-5 and thus, the match. 

Baker and Jimenez were not shaken by the loss, taking down the Demons 6-1, 6-0 as well as the Skiers 6-2, 6-1. 

No. 2 Doubles
After suffering an 0-6, 0-6 loss to Vail Mountain School, Taylor Rockford and Vanessa Dorr cruised their way to a 6-2 first win over Glenwood. 

“With such a dominant result in the first set, sometimes a team will subconsciously ‘ease up’ with their play, but this did not happen,” Scicchitano said.

Quickly, the Steamboat duo would win the second set 6-1. The pair followed up on Tuesday with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Aspen. 

No. 3 Doubles
Emily Lopez and Elsa Damore dropped their match to Vail Mountain School, 6-0, 6-0. 

Up against Glenwood Springs, the pair secured the first set 6-2 with little issue. But the Demons were not deterred and took the second set for themselves. In the 10-point third set, the two teams were knotted up at 8-8 with the teams trading match-point opportunities while being unable to convert. 

Ultimately, it was the Sailors who took the 13-11 win following a Glenwood double-fault to seal the deal. 

The no. 3 doubles group would later lose 3-6, 3-6 to Aspen on Tuesday. 

No. 4 Doubles
Sammy Richman and Charlotte Higgins fell to Vail Mountain School 6-2, 6-1 to open the tri-meet, but the girls responded nicely by taking the first set over Glenwood in dramatic fashion 7-6 (8-6) and later the second set 6-2. 

The pair dropped its Tuesday match to Aspen, 4-6, 3-6. 

Next up for the Sailors is a road match against Loveland on March 28 followed by a faceoff with Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins on March 29.