It was a busy week in Pueblo sports as the postseason began for several spring sports.
With lacrosse, soccer, tennis, volleyball and swimming and diving all beginning their postseason schedule, here is a quick rundown of what’s happening this week in Pueblo sports:
Boys Lacrosse
The Pueblo West boy’s co-op lacrosse team finished off their best regular season in program history with a home playoff game against Lutheran.
The Cyclones fought hard throughout the rainy match but unfortunately were not able to come up with enough offense to get past the Lions. Pueblo West lost 11-6 to end their season.
They finish with an 11-5 record overall.
Girls soccer
In Class 4A, Pueblo County and Pueblo West girls’ soccer were on the road to open up their postseason runs.
The Hornets of Pueblo County were up in Colorado Springs to take on Rampart. The Hornets played tough but couldn’t generate enough offense to overcome the Rams, and they lost 3-0. Pueblo County finishes the season with a 9-5-2 record and a share of the South-Central League title.
The Cyclones of Pueblo West were also on the road in Colorado Springs taking on Air Academy. The Kadets took it to the Cyclones in this one, winning in the opening round 4-1. Pueblo West finishes its season off with an 8-7-1 record.
In Class 3A, the Pueblo Centennial Bulldogs hosted Eagle Ridge in the opening round of the playoffs. The Bulldogs were held scoreless and lost to the Warriors 2-0.
Head Coach Jeff Sterling spoke about the loss after the game.
“I feel like we picked the wrong day to have a really bad mental game,” Sterling said. “I felt like energy-wise we were good. We just made some decisions that we haven’t made for 10 or 12 games. I think we started pretty well and could have scored an early goal or two. I think the other team’s effort really picked up, and we just did not have a good game.”
The Bulldogs have a young team, and the experience in this game will hopefully carry over with those returning players.
“We do return a lot of players, and hopefully we have a few incoming players that are also pretty good to replace our outgoing three seniors,” Sterling said. “But I think as a group, you know, we all have to learn a lot from this.”
Girls Tennis
In Class 3A, Pueblo Centennial’s Quincy Nakaguma lost her first-round match against Lutheran’s Carter Tormoehlen 7-5, 6-3. Shannon Schmidt of Prospect Ridge Academy defeated Pueblo Central’s Ashlynn Saenz 6-1, 6-1.
Pueblo-Central’s doubles Alani Sanchez and Badyn Robinson lost to Eatons Maddi Smith and Trinity Salberg 6-0, 6-1.
In Class 4A, Pueblo East’s Ava Andrada won her first-round matchup against Lewis Palmers Juliya Yuzkiv 6-2, 6-2 but lost in the second round to George Washingtons Hannah Nguyen 7-6, 7-5.
Pueblo County’ Anna Kleven lost her first-round match against Palmer Ridges Ulla Schultz 6-1, 6-1. Morgan Chavez also lost her first-round match against Thompson Valley’s Sarah Takken 6-2, 0-6, 6-1.
Doubles teammates Aubree Romo and Noel Tapia dropped their first-round match against Thompson Valley’s Ashlyn Tafoya and Tatum Sharp 7-6, 6-3. Roxie Valentine and Nadia Bustos lost to Niwot’s Jordan Rutkowski and Hannah Nelson 7-5, 5-7, 6-3. Keelyn Tucker and Amara Salazar won their first-round match against Green Mountain’s Haylee Yutzy and Samantha Moon 6-0, 6-0 but lost their second-round match against Molly Moquin and Piper Hall of Grand Junction 6-2, 6-3. Finally, Bellina Cipriani and Emily Smith lost their opening round match against Thompson Valley’s Gennevieve White and Madelyn Wilcken 7-6, 3-6, 7-6.
Boys Volleyball
The Pueblo South boys co-op volleyball team entered the CHSAA state final tournament as the No. 3 seed and faced off against Denver Waldorf in their first-round match. The Colts came away with the victory 3-1 and advanced to the quarterfinals, where they will take on No. 2-seeded D’Evelyn on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Boys Swimming and Diving
In boys swimming and diving, the first day of prelims occurred on Thursday. The best result from the prelims comes from the 500-yard freestyle with Pueblo County’s Christian Garcia finishing fifth with a time of 4:49.28 and Orin Meyer finished sixth with a time of 4:49.50. Garcia also finished seventh in the 200-yard Freestyle with a time of 1:45.71. Pueblo County’s Chance Harberts finished sixth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 53.33. Regarding relay teams, Pueblo County’s 400-yard Freestyle Relay team finished eleventh in the prelims with a time of 3:24.66.
Day two of the finals for swimming and diving takes place on Friday at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo spring sports in postseason play