2023 Girls Tennis State Championship Recap
Posted: Wednesday, October 25, 2023 - 10:34 PM
Rochester Mayo’s rich tradition of success in Girls Tennis includes 26 trips in a 27-year span to the Minnesota State High School League’s State Tournament, journeys that include seven runner-up finishes. Missing from the sterling resume, however, was an elusive first state championship.
Until now.
The top-seeded Spartans finished off a season of perfection with a more-challenging-than-it-sounds 6-1 victory over No. 2 Edina in the Class AA championship match on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at the Baseline Tennis Center on the University of Minnesota campus. Sophomore Ana Medina clinched Rochester Mayo’s first-ever team title with a victory at No. 4 singles and ensured the Spartans would finish the season with a 26-0 record.
“I had no idea, but does feel really, really good,” Medina told the Star Tribune of her clinching point. “This is something we’ve been focused on all year.”
What was just as satisfying for the Spartans is their first state championship came against No. 2-seeded Edina, the most successful high school girls tennis program in state history. Edina, which has 27 team state championships, last won a crown in 2019. Rochester Mayo’s victory was the third this season over Edina. The first was a 5-2 victory on Aug. 26 and that same score was repeated on Sept. 20.
“I’m just so proud of this team and what they've accomplished this year,” Spartans coach Jeff Demaray told the Rochester Post Bulletin. “But I think it's critical that I recognize that there was a foundation laid for them from all the other players, parents and coaches who came before them. It’s because that foundation was laid that this happened today. And so, this goes out to the entire Mayo tennis family, that this team did what all of those other Mayo teams had come so close to doing.”
In Class A, Blake prevented the City of Rochester from boasting champions in both classes in the same season for the first time in state tournament history. Blake, the No. 2 seed, defeated top-seeded Rochester Lourdes 5-2 to capture the Class A championship at the Reed-Sweatt Family Tennis Center in South Minneapolis.
The Bears captured the clinching point when ninth-grader Fatemeh Vang recorded a victory at No. 2 singles. Blake won three of the four singles matches and two of the three doubles matches en route to winning its 14th state championship. Blake completed four of its five victories in straight sets.
Rochester Lourdes was the defending Class A champion and owners of 14 small-school titles, including 13 since 1997.
