DENVER — Revenge is a dish best served twice.

And neither time Cheyenne Mountain prepped the plate for its opponent did it bother to heat the meal. 

Top-seeded Cheyenne Mountain met No. 2 Kent Denver for the third consecutive year in the girls tennis team tournament finals and bested the Sun Devils for the second time in a row. 

The Red-Tailed Hawks left Denver Tennis Park on Tuesday with back-to-back 4A state championships as they swept the Sun Devils 4-0. 

“This year was different because you knew you could smile and laugh when you missed,” No. 2 singles Alyssa Sadri said. “You’re not thinking ‘Oh no!’ Because you missed a shot. I didn’t expect to win (6-0, 6-0) but that’s always a nice feeling when you do. And it was fun to finish my match and watch other people’s (matches) versus being the last match.” 

Last year, at No. 1 singles for the Red-Tailed Hawks, Sadri was tasked with defeating Kent Denver’s Lila Moldenhauer, who won all their previous matchups including last year’s individual state semifinals.

At the team tournament, Sadri upset Moldenhauer to help the Red-Tailed Hawks win the championship, but didn’t require that push this season. Sadri actually breezed through her final five career matches. 

The Red-Tailed Hawks’ senior dropped just one game between this year’s individual championship and Tuesday’s team title round. That one game came in the individual title match vs. her finals opponent Tuesday: Kent Denver’s Nora Rapp. Sadri rectified that in their contest, won 6-0, 6-0 and wrapped her match in less than an hour. 

“The previous times we played it had been 6-1, 6-0 so I had an idea of how it was going to go,” Sadri said. “Last season, Lila had beaten me with a similar score. You never know with these things and it could have been a different story. I’m happy it went the way it went and it’s great to be back here for a third year. I’ll take three out of four years as champions and a 75 percent success rate.” 

Coach Dave Adams hoped the team’s mojo from Saturday’s individual championships carried to their meeting with Kent Denver. The Red-Tailed Hawks returned numerous players from last year’s title team and won five championships last weekend. That meant Cheyenne Mountain had the pressure to win. 

“It was kind of a sense of ‘well, we better win,” Adams said. “And if we don’t win the state title, it’ll be a colossal failure. After doing so well in the individual part Thursday, Friday and Saturday, if there was a letdown, which happens, you see it in sports all the time. The team that is supposed to win doesn’t make it happen.

“But we won because we focused on doing what we always do and that’s not thinking about the future too much and not thinking about the past.” 

Be present in the moment. Every Red-Tailed Hawk on the court exuded that energy to clinch another championship.

Sophie Zhou, Cheyenne Mountain’s No. 3 singles, also swept her match 6-0, 6-0 and only lost three games in her final five matches. 

The Red-Tailed Hawks’ No. 3 and 4 doubles teams clinched the victory with 6-1, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-3 victories, respectively. 

The first school to four total victories earned the title, which meant three-time individual champion Rose Katen, the Red-Tailed Hawks’ No. 1 singles player, and Nos. 1 and 2 doubles players didn’t need to finish their matches. 

Katen earned one set against Ellie Strobos and led the second set 4-1 before the voice over the loudspeakers announced Cheyenne Mountain won the tournament. 

“I was trying to go as fast as I could but that was also making me make mistakes,” Katen said. “I saw all of my teammates were winning and I knew we had one more match to go and I was hoping to finish in time. But I’m glad my teammates were able to get this done.”

For Adams, this is his 14th championship with the girls’ team. Adams previously said each title holds its own meaning, especially the 2025 trophy. But the feeling of succeeding …

“No,” Adams said. “This never gets old.”