From the start of the season, Holy Family tennis player Danielle Gannon had two goals: win the Class 1A state singles championship and for her team to take a state title.
Done and done.
Gannon, a senior and the top-ranked player in Class 1A, earned her first state singles title Friday with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Virginia senior Brylee Seitz, the No. 2 seed. Holy Family won the team title Wednesday.
"It feels very good," said Gannon, who played five years of varsity tennis for the Victoria-based school and was making her second appearance in the state tournament. "We all worked very hard. This was definitely the end goal."
Last season Gannon finished runner-up to two-time state champion Sonya Das of St. Paul Academy, so this year's state title provided some closure.
"I was just trying to be the best I can be," Gannon said. "If this is what it was going to be, that's what would happen. I'm happy everything went well."
Most of the match with Seitz was played from the baseline, with both players pounding out groundstrokes resulting in long volleys. In most cases Gannon was the aggressor. Seitz played tough defense, returning a number of shots that looked like winners.
"She got a lot of balls back, she's very athletic," Gannon said of Seitz, who reached the finals by defeating Gannon's teammate Grace Sperr in the semifinals.
Gannon said she and Sperr gave each other some advice on their opponents heading into their championship and third-place matches.
"We got to talk to each other about strategy and how we were going to play them," Gannon said. "She definitely gave me some pointers. I worked hard for this one. It's a lot of fun."
In doubles, Breck's Grace Zumwinkle and Kendall Kozikowski defeated Cannon Falls' Tayler Banitt and Maddie Adel 6-1, 6-2 for their first state championship title. The duo finished runner-up to teammates Patricia Zhao and Sunny Tang last season.
"Ever since last year when we lost, we said we'd come back next year stronger than ever," said Kozikowski, a junior. "We had this goal in mind for a while and we came and got it today."