GREAT FALLS — It took a few years, but a pair of Missoula Sentinel Spartans peaked just in time. The doubles team of Cody Curtis and Connor D’Angelo swept through the Class AA tennis bracket on their way to a state championship.
Curtis and D’Angelo did not drop a single set in Great Falls. One team took them to 7-5. But they dominated every other set, winning the final over a Billings West pair, 6-3, 6-2.
D’Angelo had played singles in his previous two trips to state, finishing fourth in 2017. Curtis lost in last year’s state doubles championship with a different partner. A fresh start with each other pushed the pair of Spartan seniors to greatness.
“This entire season, whether I told Connor or not, the entire time I had my eyes set only on first place,” said Curtis. “I wasn’t going to let last year happen again.”
“I think at the beginning we were like just getting used to it, because we’ve played tennis together, but not like together,” said D’Angelo about the two former competitors teaming up. “So we were good because of that. But then over the season, especially in the last couple weeks, we’ve been pretty good.”
The points Curtis and D’Angelo racked up helped Sentinel dominate the competition in the team standings, giving the Spartans their first team championship since 1970, the first year the Montana High School Association held a state tennis tournament.
