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Steamboat Springs — When two undefeated boys tennis regional powerhouses meet, you can expect some close matches. Class 4A Northern Colorado perennial regional champion Greeley West was already warmed up after dispatching a talented 5A Boulder team, 4-3, Saturday morning.

But in its Saturday afternoon match with Steamboat Springs, Greeley West met a team bent on earning its 10th consecutive Western Slope regional title. Steamboat came out on top of a string of close matches to win, 4-3.

Steamboat's doubles teams showed the most impressive resolve when, after both its No. 1 and No. 3 doubles teams lost opening matches, they came back to split sets and went on to win their matches.

The No. 3 tandem of Zach Valicenti and Ben Paley had not even played a match together until Saturday. They quickly picked up on each other's tendencies by the second set and started attacking the net aggressively to seal a match win.

Things were looking lost for the No. 1 Doubles team of Charlie Smith and Alex Gibbs, when down a set to Greeley West's Keaton Brown and Mike Machado, Smith struggled with some double faults on his serve.

"I thought we were done, but we started stroking it and I served well when we needed it," Smith said.

Smith and Gibbs managed to hold on and push a tiebreaker in the third set, where Gibbs' serves and Smith's net play earned the Sailors a key win.

"These guys need to know that even though they're young, if they play with a refuse-to-lose attitude and they play as one, they can beat a solid team," Steamboat head coach John Aragon said.

Aragon pointed out the effort of players like the No. 2 doubles team of freshman brothers Keegan and Jack Burger, who failed to win their match, but staged a controlled second-set comeback.

Vladan Chase and Mirko Erspamer rounded out Steamboat's doubles efforts at the No. 4 spot with a win in what Chase called, "one of our best matches together overall on the season."

In singles play, Ramsey Bernard continued to prove his status as one of the state's best with a one-sided win against Nik Lehnert, returning Lehnert's powerful serves with a steady backhand.

Jeff Lambart (No. 3 singles) suffered his first loss of the season in the longest and closest match of the day and Matt Gadbois (No. 2 singles) could not replicate the winning form he had Friday.

"He's a great player, but the game just didn't go his way," Greeley West's Chris Schommer said of the win against Gadbois. "He'll be contending for state. This weekend really opened our eyes with Boulder and Steamboat. You get down to state and see a Kent Denver or a Cheyenne Mountain and you have to play great just like this weekend."

Steamboat (6-0) plays its next varsity match with Evergreen at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Tennis Center at Steamboat Springs.