As Ava Lewis prepared for the No. 1 singles third-place match at the state tournament in Denver, she noticed a gaggle of supporters near her court.

Virtually none wore Pine Creek colors.

Most of the audience at Denver City Park assembled to support her opponent, Fairview’s Stella Laird.

Lewis took that personally.

“I was getting frustrated because I had my one coach and my parents there supporting me while my opponent had pretty much her whole team,” Lewis said. “I remember my mom kept encouraging me and telling me, ‘You got this’ and ‘You can do it.’”

Lewis, this year’s girls tennis Peak Performer, developed that fierce mentality with relentless practice last offseason as she traveled throughout Colorado and to Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah to compete in United States Tennis Association matches.

During those matches, Lewis learned how to let her frustrations sharpen her game rather than detract from it.

As a sophomore during the state tournament, Lewis faced Poudre’s Avery Hickman in the quarterfinals but lost in three sets.

“I was up most of that match last year at state and I was expecting to win,” Lewis said. “She ended up playing really well and I lost some of my strength at the end and she won.”

Dan Lehman, the Pine Creek girls tennis coach, said her match against Hickman wasn’t a turning point, but provided Lewis with wisdom that pushed her this season.

“She matured from last year and started putting points together better this year,” Lehman said. “That experience helped her in terms of fighting her way through the tougher matches.”

Against Laird in May, Lewis dropped the first set but fought to avoid a straight-sets loss and push the match to a third set.

The Eagles junior took a unique, but successful, step to find that “umph” to defeat Laird.

“I kept thinking, Mother’s Day is coming up and this would be such a great gift for (my mom),” Lewis said. “That motivated me. My parents are the real prizes of tennis and I’m grateful for how they support me and my goals. And I felt like this was the perfect opportunity to give back. This was a match dedicated to my mom.”

Lewis also displayed her steadfast mentality in the quarterfinals against Ralston Valley’s Ally Lowe.

Except, this battle didn’t involve her opponent.

“During state, I ended up getting two calf cramps and that’s never happened,” Lewis said. “Both of my calves cramped up and I needed medical assistance. They massaged my calves and I had to wear these calf sleeves so they wouldn’t cramp up again.”

Lewis led 4-2 in the third set when her calf cramps halted the match. The aches lingered, but Lewis pushed them.

Lowe managed two more match points, but Lewis staved off defeat and won 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

Although she lost her semifinals match 6-4, 6-2 to Valor Christian’s Caroline Daugherty, who earned the No. 1 singles title, Lehman believes Lewis had a shot at the crown.

“If it hadn’t been for that cramping, I think she could have won the whole thing,” Lehman said. “If she had been 100 percent, I think she would have won the semifinals and then gone on to the finals. But her legs were not healed enough to get her through that [semifinals] match.”

With the finish, Lewis became the first Pine Creek girls tennis player to earn a podium finish in more than a decade.

“I think that helps in terms of if a player wants to go to Pine Creek or Discovery Canyon – that’s the tipping point,” Lehman said. “It gives the other players something to look up to. We had a good 1-2-3 singles this year but Ava stood out as the premier player. When you have someone winning like that, the other girls say, ‘I need to play as hard as her.’”