BOYS' TENNIS STATE TOURNAMENT
CLASS 2A
Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis
Wednesday's team final: Rochester Mayo 4, Wayzata 3
Today-Friday: Singles and doubles competition
CLASS 1A
Reed-Sweatt Tennis Center in Minneapolis
Wednesday's team final: Breck 5, Rochester Lourdes 2
Today-Friday: Singles and doubles competition
Complete results and schedule on C7The very nature of a team championship is that the sum of the parts is the crux, regardless of how good or promising some of those parts might be.
Such is the case with Rochester Mayo. Dealing all season with a national spotlight and some highly charged opinions based on the presence of one very notable player, the Spartans never flinched.
They handled the attention that accompanied having seventh-grade girl Ingrid Neel in their midst, embracing her as a teammate while keeping their ultimate goal in sight. And that paid big dividends Wednesday when Mayo beat Wayzata 4-3 to win the boys' tennis Class 2A team championship.
"It is what it is," said Thomas Nath, Mayo's top singles player. "She is an important part of this team, but just one part. From the beginning of this season, our focus has been on what we can control. What we controlled was how hard we worked. And this is the hardest-working team we've ever had."
Mayo coach Jeff Demaray, who also coached the Spartans to the 2007 championship, mitigated that sentiment just a bit.
"I've always said that championships are won in the offseason, and this team put in the time to get there," he said. "I don't know about 'hardest-working,' but they have worked extremely hard."
Wednesday's final overflowed with strategy. Matchups were studied and lineups altered as both teams looked to gain an edge.
Wayzata moved No. 3 singles player Nick Beaty, a cool-headed seventh-grader (where have we heard that before?) who established himself as a force in the tournament, to No. 2, dropping Scott Vezzosi to No. 1 doubles. Trojans coach Jeff Prondzinski also moved Michael Anderson, a senior doubles specialist, to No. 3 singles, where he faced Neel in the first -- and last -- high school singles match of his life.
He lost in straight sets, but he relished the chance he was given.
"The final high school match of my career and I get to play singles," said a beaming Anderson. "I knew what kind of player she was, but I held my head high and played as hard as I could. It was a great opportunity."
Mayo, superior to Wayzata in singles, countered by adjusting their doubles teams, hoping for that one crucial point. The Spartans found it at No. 3 doubles, where Michael Poeschla and Nick Ackerman pulled out a three-set victory over Matt Halvorson and Ketan Kulkami.
"We took a lot of time before the tournament, looking at the different lineups for each team," Demaray said. "What we wanted against Wayzata was the lineup that would give us the best chance to win."
In the aftermath of the victory, Neel, who won all three of her matches, ran and skipped and celebrated with her teammates, looking far more like a typical 12-year-old than tennis' next big thing.
"I'm still in disbelief," she said. "This is one of the best experiences I've ever had."
Class 1A: Breck's big dayIf ever a team was set up for a perfect ending, it was Breck.
The Mustangs beat archrival Blake 4-3 in the Class 1A semifinals, avenging two recent stinging losses to the Bears -- one in the 2010 championship match.
Pleased but certainly not satisfied, Breck then defeated Rochester Lourdes 5-2 for its second state championship in the past three years.
"Everybody remembered how bad it felt to lose last year when we didn't play our best," Breck captain Trotter Oberrender said. "I was a little nervous. I tried to go to bed [Tuesday] at 9 o'clock, but I didn't get to sleep until 11:30."
What made Breck's victory over Blake even sweeter was that it won despite a loss by Myles Tang at No. 1 singles. Tang's loss to Ford Traff was offset by Daniel Carpenter's decisive victory over Kai Skallerud at No. 2. It was Skallerud's victory over Carpenter in May that paced a Blake victory.
"I knew he'd be tough, but I was fired up to play him again," Carpenter said. "I wasn't going to let the team down."
The biggest worry for Breck coach Reven Stephens was that his team might suffer a letdown after the emotional semifinals victory.
"That's the hardest thing: settling down," Stephens said after beating Blake. "I have to make sure they know that wasn't the championship match."
Stephens obviously got his point across. Breck swept the doubles against Lourdes and got singles points from Carpenter and Joey Gamer at Nos. 2 and 3 singles.
"We know that it doesn't mean anything to beat Blake if we don't finish it out," Oberrender said.
