Rochester Mayo girls tennis makes it two state titles in a row

The newness was the only thing missing.

For the Rochester Mayo girls tennis team, their 5-2 victory over Edina in the Class 2A team finals Wednesday at the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis — the Spartans’ second in row — was as fulfilling as a championship should be.

After winning the first team title in school history in 2023, the Spartans retained a large portion of the talent this season. This year marked Mayo’s 27th state tournament appearance, and it ended as expected — in dominant fashion.

With talent came expectations, though, and high expectations have been known to derail many teams. For Mayo, however, expectations were what they desired. It meant they were good, real good, and everybody knew it.

“True, we had expectations, but I feel like that just helped us have confidence in ourselves,” said Keely Ryder, Mayo’s senior captain and doubles standout.

Ryder said winning their second consecutive team title in front of a horde of Mayo fans, who made the trip up Hwy. 52 to support their hardcourt heroes — and doing it over historic Edina, the program that had won 19 consecutive state titles from 1997 through 2015 — made the victory special.

“There’s definitely more energy around this victory [than in the past],” Ryder said. “We would consistently make it to the state tournament, but there was always that feeling that we know we were going [to lose]. Last year, winning it was really, really new and it was kind of surreal. This year, we knew what we could do and we were just really confident.”

Mayo finished the season a perfect 24-0 and are now 50-0 over the past two seasons. On Wednesday, they took a cue from their star senior singles player, defending Class 2A champ Claire Loftus. Loftus remained unbeaten on the season, winning all three of her matches in the team tournament, dropping only two games in three sets.

Loftus has two more days of play ahead as she seeks another individual title, then her six-year high school career, which began splitting time at No. 1 singles as a seventh-grader, comes to an end.

Cool, meticulous and determined, Loftus talked about her legacy. She could likely end her high school career as a four-time champion — two team and two individual — but is just as concerned with representing her school, and her sport, with humility.

“I’m a pretty good player, but I think something that sets me apart is that I’m nicer and I always try to have good sportsmanship,” Loftus said. “Just kind of being a good person on and off the court and representing Mayo tennis, and our community, is important.”