Preps: Aspen girls lacrosse season ends at No. 1 Evergreen; Rams also bow out

The season came to an end for the Aspen High School girls lacrosse team on Saturday, losing 18-9 at No. 1 seed Evergreen in the Class 4A state quarterfinals.

The No. 8 seed Skiers finish the spring 11-6 overall. AHS beat No. 9 Durango in the second round on Thursday, 17-4, after having a first-round bye.

Evergreen (14-2) advances to the semifinals, which includes each of the top four seeds. The Cougars will play No. 4 Mead on Wednesday, while No. 3 Battle Mountain will face No. 2 Green Mountain in the other semifinal. Both games will be played at Englewood High School.

Battle Mountain beat No. 6 Steamboat Springs, 19-7, in their quarterfinal game on Saturday. Green Mountain beat No. 7 Roaring Fork, 20-7, on Saturday at JeffCo Stadium in Lakewood. The Rams finish 12-5 overall; they beat No. 10 Mullen in the second round, 12-4, after having a first-round bye.

The 4A girls lacrosse state title game is scheduled for May 16 at the University of Denver.

Boys lacrosse

The undefeated and No. 1-seeded Aspen boys lacrosse team (15-0) will host No. 9 Steamboat Springs (11-6) at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in the 4A quarterfinals. The Skiers beat No. 16 Green Mountain in the second round on Friday, 14-4, after having a first-round bye.

The Sailors are coming off an 11-2 second-round win over No. 8 Grand Junction. Steamboat was 0-2 against AHS in the regular season, including an 8-7 overtime loss on May 1 in what was Aspen’s regular-season finale. The Sailors beat the Skiers in both regular-season games of 2024.

The last time Aspen and Steamboat met in the postseason was in 2017, with the No. 10 Sailors winning 5-3 over the No. 7 Skiers in the first round of the 4A playoffs on the AHS turf. SSHS lost to No. 2 Valor Christian, the eventual state champion that spring, in the quarterfinals.

The AHS-Steamboat winner on Tuesday will advance to face either No. 5 Resurrection Christian or No. 4 Air Academy in the semifinals next Saturday, May 17. The other quarterfinal games include No. 3 Evergreen vs. No. 6 Golden and No. 7 Telluride vs. No. 2 Dakota Ridge.

Both semifinal games and the May 19 championship game will be played at the University of Denver.

Girls soccer

The Roaring Fork girls soccer season came to an end Saturday with a 6-0 loss at No. 3 seed Delta in the 3A second round. The No. 19 seed Rams, who upset No. 14 Montezuma-Cortez in the first round, 8-2, finish the spring 8-6-3 overall.

Delta, a perfect 17-0 now, will host No. 11 Timnath in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Two other Western Slope soccer teams had their season’s end in the second round, as well. No. 16 Steamboat Springs lost at No. 1 Colorado Academy, 7-0; No. 13 Vail Mountain lost at No. 4 Prospect Ridge, 3-0.

Baseball

Aspen baseball’s postseason hopes took a hit on Saturday with a 10-0 home loss to Roaring Fork. AHS beat the Rams as recently as Wednesday, winning that game 16-7 in Carbondale.

The Skiers (8-13) have two games against Battle Mountain coming up on Tuesday that will close out the regular season. The Rams (7-16) are likely done for the spring.

Basalt (9-12) played Saturday at defending 3A state champion Eaton (17-6), falling 14-4 to extend its losing streak to five games. The Longhorns’ only remaining regular-season game is Monday against Meeker.

The 3A regional brackets come out Wednesday; 32 teams qualify for the single-elimination rounds. As of Saturday evening, BHS remained safely within the qualifying bubble, per the CHSAA seeding index, at No. 23. Aspen was sitting at No. 34 — one of the first teams left out — as of 7 p.m. Saturday, while Roaring Fork was No. 36. The rankings are fluid as scores are updated.

Girls tennis

The Aspen girls tennis season came to an end this past weekend at the 3A state tournament in Colorado Springs.

The only singles player at state for the Skiers, freshman Olivia Mandelblatt, lost in the first round at No. 3 singles, falling 7-5, 6-1 to D’Evelyn senior Nicole Reeb on Thursday. Reeb would lose in the second round to eventual third-place finisher, Peak to Peak’s Ranye Ezenekwe.

At No. 3 doubles, Aspen’s Anna Dangler and Quintessa Frisch lost in the first round, 6-1, 6-2, to Colorado Academy’s Sheena Wu and Addie Vath. Finally, at No. 4 doubles, Aspen’s Grace Gallagher and Luna Murray lost in the first round, 6-3, 7-5, to University’s Madison McClanahan and Payton Turner.

Girls golf

The Aspen girls golf team is scheduled to compete Monday at their Class 2A regional tournament, held at RainDance National in Windsor. Any qualifiers would advance to next week’s 2A state tournament, held May 19-20 at Pueblo Country Club.

Track and field

With a handful of last-chance qualifying meets taking place this past weekend, the state’s track and field athletes now await the official list of state qualifiers, expected out in the coming days.

The state meet runs this Thursday through Saturday at JeffCo Stadium in Lakewood.

acolbert@aspentimes.com