Cheyenne Mountain’s Kristina Barber always has been close to her mom. But tennis brought them closer.

“We kind of just do anything or everything,” the senior said. “But the main thing we’ve done over the years is just play tennis.”

Check out a photo gallery featuring Barber.

After she quit figure skating at age 11, Barber was introduced to tennis by her mom, Kristin, a recreational player who her daughter says “could’ve played in college.”

“My mom was a tennis player and she took me on Sunday afternoons and I really liked it and I just kinda caught on,” Barber said. “She’s worked with me a lot so I could be as good as I am. I didn’t used to (beat her) at all. She would cream me. And now we have good matches, but typically I will win.”

Barber has grown accustomed to winning. As a freshman, she won the Class 4A No. 1 doubles title before moving to No. 2 singles as a sophomore and placing fourth at No. 1 last year.

“She really put the time in,” coach Dave Adams said. “Every year when spring came around, you could see she had really worked on her game and added components that made her game more well-rounded. And her senior year was a joy to watch … the fact that she could shift gears and do different things on the court that she’d never been able to do before. Her maturity was nice to see.”

This season, Barber dominated area opponents and carried an undefeated record into the 4A tournament, where she placed third and helped her team claim its second straight title and third in her four years.

“She’s the best tennis player in the better part of the state,” Adams said.

Barber has competed in national tournaments, including one on clay. And she played on a grass court about six years ago during a family trip to England, where she and — of course — her mom made sure to visit Wimbledon.

Click here to see a printable poster of Kristina.

Next season, she will begin her Division I career at Colorado, where she plans to major in chemistry with the intention of being pre-med.

“I’ve always been interested in sciences and medicine so I want to keep going with that,” she said. “I really want to do cardiology and hopefully cardiac surgery.”

Barber received offers to play tennis at Creighton (Neb.) and several D-III schools but chose Boulder.

“It’s a real neat idea to play for your home school,” she said. “And I wanted to stay near home.”

That should make Mom happy.

Photo by JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE