PRAIRIE VILLAGE – Wichita Collegiate girls tennis coach Simon Norman maintains a solid poker face when discussing his Spartans – until the subject turns toward their potential for the future.
 
Then it becomes a challenge for Norman to conceal his grin. With four freshman and a sophomore on this year’s state roster, Collegiate’s hereafter appears as bright as its past.
 
The Spartans’ young guns showed the present was in good hands as well as the Class 4A girls state tournament neared its conclusion Saturday at Harmon Park. Freshman singles player Hitha Ganganala, the tournament’s top seed after winning 22 of 23 matches prior to state, closed the door on second-seeded Sofia Spies of Buhler, winning the final 15 points of the championship match for a 6-2, 6-1 victory.
 
A couple hours later on the same court, another Spartan freshman, Tanya Ramesh, unleashed a series of big forehands and backhands in the final game as she and Collegiate’s lone senior, Amelia Blackman, defeated Wellington seniors Cruz Cornejo and Logan Robinson 7-5, 6-3 for the 4A doubles title.
 

With another freshman, Natalia Saad, adding a sixth-place finish in singles, and Collegiate’s other doubles entry, sophomore Natalie Nichols and freshman Giana Shuart, tallying points on the tournament’s first day, the Spartans finished with 43 points. That was enough to hold off McPherson, which finished second in 4A for the third consecutive year with 36.
 
Collegiate also prolonged a state-record championship streak, winning a girls team title for the 17^th consecutive year to raise its overall count to 36 since 1986. The Spartans returned to 4A this fall after competing in Class 3-2-1A since 2021.
 
“It’s been fun,” Norman said of winning his third girls team title at Collegiate since taking over for Dave Hawley, who retired from high school coaching in 2023. “I’m not really caught up in the numbers that much. It’s going to be hard for somebody to beat us. We’ll stand behind that. But it’s never easy and I don’t ever take that for granted.”
 
After graduating four seniors off last year’s 3-2-1A championship team, including three-time state doubles winners Laney Conrad and Julia Herrman, Collegiate entered the season conceding high school tournament experience to many of its opponents. Blackman had the lion’s share, finishing fourth in 3-2-1A singles as a junior and fifth as a sophomore.
 
But with its regular-season schedule featuring the usual steady diet of competition from similar-sized and larger schools, Collegiate’s players established credentials worthy of the No. 1 and 5 state tournament seeds in doubles and No. 1 and 7 seeds in singles.
 
Ganganala, whose lone loss this season came to Class 6A fifth-place finisher Penelope Reed of Blue Valley North in the singles final of Collegiate’s Tournament of Champions, stormed through her first three 4A state matches without losing a game.
 

Facing Spies, her regional final opponent and last year’s 4A runner-up, in the championship, Ganganala quickly dropped the first two games. But she settled in with a service break and continuously forced Spies to work from beyond the baseline, taking the first set in 36 minutes.
 
“I felt like since no one else was hitting the ball as fast as her, I wasn’t as prepared for that,” Ganganala said. “But once I started getting the rhythm with the faster pace, I felt like I could be more consistent.
 
“She likes coming forward and driving the ball flatter, so when I was defending I was trying to hit the ball higher so it would go deeper. If I did happen to give her a short ball, I tried to back up more to give myself more time.”
 
The strategy produced Ganganala’s third victory this season against Spies, who finished 27-7. Spies, who fell to Hayden’s three-time state champion Ainzley Zulueta in last year’s final, had a pair of break points and an opportunity to even the second set against Ganganala. But Ganganala held for a 3-1 lead, then broke Spies at love and rode the momentum to the finish.
 
“She’s just very consistent,” Spies said. “She keeps a pretty good head on her. It was hard (not getting that break) because I knew it was just little things that kept me from it. If I had been able to do those things, I would have been playing a lot longer.”
 

Ganganala’s 26-1 season included a victory over Class 5A singles champion Mia Jaramillo of Andover and McPherson senior Maryn Sandbo, who finished third in 4A for the second straight year with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Winfield’s Sophia Heger. Sandbo’s finish was matched by her teammates, Quinn Liebl and Avery Unruh, who took third in doubles after all won regional titles.
 
Blackman and Ramesh halted the Bullpups’ bid for a doubles title with a 6-4, 6-4 semifinal victory over Liebl and Unruh. That set the Spartans up for their third meeting of the season against Cornejo and Robinson, who reached the state final in their first season as doubles partners since middle school.
 
After defeating the Wellington duo 8-1 and 8-3 in mid-September matches, Blackman and Ramesh faced a tougher challenge Saturday. The opening set of the championship featured service breaks in nine consecutive games before Ramesh held serve for Collegiate to take it 7-5.
 
“That’s one of the best matches we’ve played this season,” said Robinson, who finished “To end it like that was almost perfect. Everything that we’d kind of built up during the season was exemplified in that match.”
 
Blackman and Ramesh, who went unbeaten against 4A competition to finish 26-4, tightened their grip on the match in the second set. Gaining another break on Cornejo’s double fault for a 2-1 lead, the Spartans stretched it to 5-1 with double-match point when Cornejo and Robinson battled back.
 
The Wellington team broke Ramesh’s serve for a 5-3 deficit when the young Spartan shifted into another gear. Ramesh finished off the match’s last four points, the final one a forehand smash that gave Collegiate state doubles champions for the sixth consecutive year.
 
“I kind of locked in,” Ramesh said. “I wish I’d done that the whole time. I just think I came in so nervous because I really wanted to win.”
 

Blackman and Ramesh started their partnership last summer, each having to learn one another’s strengths while also adjusting their singles-focused games. Both were optimistic it could work.
 
“She has a lot of aura,” Ramesh said of her initial impression of Blackman. “I thought with her being a lefty, we would be able to get a forehand on both sides. She hits the ball really well. She gets a good angle on the volley and her serve is good, so all around, it was a pretty good deal.”
 
Norman greeted both players with hugs as they exited the court. He was especially pleased with their emphatic finish.
 
“We had some rocky times but at the end, they really stepped up,” Norman said. “It was up and down with them all year, and then they really put it together today, which was nice.
 
“Amelia was fantastic. I wish she’d spent her whole career playing like she did today. She was fired up and she was just a spark for the team. I was really happy to see it, and what a day to turn it on.”
 
Blackman showed her leadership until the end, encouraging Ramesh not to be too hard on herself in her post-tournament assessment. Her young teammates flanked her as they posed with the championship trophy.
 
“I’m really proud of how this season turned out,” Blackman said. “Obviously, I wasn’t sure how it would go. I’m kind of a shy person and I was the past three years. I tried to stick it out and become a leader, and everybody kind of bonded over the season as it came to a close.
 
“I’m really proud, and it’s kind of bittersweet because I’m leaving behind some best friends.”
 

CLASS 4A STATE TENNIS
 
At Harmon Park
 
TEAM SCORES
 
Wichita Collegiate 43, McPherson 36, Hayden 19, Independence 18, Buhler 17, Winfield 16, Wellington 16, Marysville 15, Bishop Miege 10, Hesston 9, Scott City 7, Chanute 6, Fort Scott 6, Chapman 4, Parsons 2, Pratt 2.
 
SINGLES
 
Championship – Hitha Ganganala, Wichita Collegiate def. Sofia Spies, Buhler, 6-2, 6-1. Third place – Maryn Sandbo, McPherson def. Sophia Heger, Winfield, 6-4, 6-1. Fifth place – Ella Daniel, Bishop Miege def. Natalia Saad, Wichita Collegiate, 8-0. Seventh place – Lana Hull, Hayden def. Katherine Frese, Marysville, 8-2. Ninth place – Grace Funk, Hayden def. Zlata Mitina, Winfield, 8-5. 11^th place – Ella Guernsey, Chanute def. Sarah Veile, Independence, 8-3.
 
DOUBLES
 
Championship – Amelia Blackman/Tanya Ramesh, Wichita Collegiate def. Cruz Cornejo/Logan Robinson, Wellington, 7-5, 6-3. Third place – Quinn Liebl/Avery Unruh, McPherson def. Brooklyn Mattix/Morgan McLenon, Independence, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. Fifth place – Lleyton Kuhn/Alexandria Rodriguez, McPherson def. Elyse Griffin/Sage Bartel, Hesston, 8-2. Seventh place – Ava Spicer/Micaiah Urban, Marysville def. Kaylee Felker/Finley Edwards, Scott City, 8-3. Ninth place – Abbie Gorman/Bryleigh Hyman, Fort Scott def. Sophia Wichman/Avery O’Bray, Hayden, 8-5. 11^th place – Allie Denney/Sadie York, Independence def. Avery Baer/Carmen Courtois, Chapman, 8-5.