Sean Reider, Journal Staff Writer
Amadeus Lopez knew well in advance what Saturday would look like.
The Albuquerque Academy assistant knew he would be filling in for Amy Badger, the Chargers’ longtime girls tennis coach and “fearless leader.” With the 26-year veteran attending her daughter’s graduation, the staffer of two-and-a-half years knew a “long, long time ago” that it was his show to run Saturday at Jerry Cline Tennis Complex.
All with a state team title — Academy’s seventh in a row — on the line.
The advance notice didn’t make it much easier.
“It was,” he admitted, “a little stressful.”
In the end, there wasn’t much for the Chargers to stress over.
Top-seeded Academy overcame an early doubles deficit to beat No. 2 Española Valley 5-3 for its seventh-straight A-4A title, capping another undefeated season for one of the state’s most dominant programs.
The Chargers came back to win after trailing 2-1 following three doubles matches against a strong Sundevil team.
Academy has won an A-4A record 15 blue trophies. That includes a division-best 10 under Badger and now one with Lopez leading the way.
In crediting his team’s response, Lopez singled out Academy’s eighth graders — Ava Silverman, Cate Hedges, Sadye Bruce and Beatrice Lorenz — for rising to the moment.
“They haven’t experienced this amount of pressure when it comes to the state tournament,” he said, “where there’s hundreds of people, tons of cheering, that kind of thing. They came out and got the job done.”
Lopez said Saturday will be a day he’ll look back on fondly, but declined to participate in his team’s mock champagne celebration (they used Pellegrino sparkling water).
“They tried,” he chuckled. “They wanted to spray me with it.”
The Academy’s boys also won a state title, and head coach Mike Smolskis wasn’t so lucky during the celebration — he got doused with Pellegrino.
The Chargers battled through a stiff test from Los Alamos to claim a record-extending 23rd-straight A-4A title, the first for Smolskis.
Hired in January to replace former head coach Tim Cass, Smolskis said the Chargers’ 5-2 win over the Hilltoppers was one of the toughest the program’s had to face in “quite some time.”
“They definitely had us on the edge of our seats most of the time,” Academy assistant Ryan Tommasi added. “It was definitely not an easy watch at times — they gave us a run for our money.”
