Edina, Mounds Park cruise to tennis titles

As Edina steamrolled Elk River 6-1 for its 13th consecutive Class 2A girls' tennis team championship, senior captain Adele Henke, who had just finished a dominant victory at No. 2 singles, talked candidly about the 800-pound gorilla that hangs over the Hornets' collective heads.

How much does wanting to not be on the team that allows the streak to end motivate the Hornets?

"There is a lot of pressure that way," Henke admitted. "No one wants to drop the ball in your year. That would be awful."

And so, another year, another championship for the most successful high school athletic program in the state.

What makes Edina's 13-year run so impressive is not only the victories -- the Hornets have won 248 of their past 249 dual matches -- but the dominance with which the championships have come.

In 39 state tournament matches during the streak, only twice has an opponent won as many as three team points. But Elk River had lost only two matches during the season and was expected to put up a strong fight.

That never materialized. The Hornets jumped on the Elks from the outset at the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis. Henke, Caroline Ward and Mollie Meldahl lost a grand total of four games in three singles matches. It was much the same in doubles, where all three doubles teams won in straight sets.

Elk River's lone victory came at No. 1 singles, where Katie Jesperson rallied from a 4-0 first-set deficit to beat Meghana Vasireddy 7-5, 6-3.

"Actually, I expected the match to be a lot closer," Edina coach Steve Paulsen said. "Elk River is a really good team. We're just playing extremely well."

The expectations that follow Edina sought out Mounds Park Academy this fall.

The Panthers, blessed with the strongest singles lineup in Class 1A, were the top-ranked team in the State Coaches Association polls from the first day of practice, something that was a concern to coach Justen Seim.

"It wasn't my biggest concern, but it was up there," Seim said. "Until this year, we have always been the underdog in the state tournament."

Seim need not have worried. Controlling the match from the outset, Mounds Park easily defeated Waseca 6-1 at the Reed-Sweatt Tennis Center in Minneapolis to win its second Class 1A championship in three years.

Waseca was something of a surprise finalist, having upset Rochester Lourdes, which had won 11 of the past 12 championships, 4-3 in the semifinals.

Rochester Lourdes had beaten Mounds Park for each of its past three titles, and a Lourdes administrative mistake helped Mounds Park win the 2007 state title. Many tennis observers thought any Mounds Park Academy championship would have to go through Lourdes.

Seim insisted, however, that the opponent didn't matter.

"We were not looking for revenge," he said. "We weren't trying to do anything except play good, solid tennis."

Frankly, the way the Panthers cruised through the championship match, they would have given Edina a run for its money.

Taylor Washington, Amber Washington and Brenna Kelly won the Nos. 1 through 3 singles match in straight sets, five of them by 6-0 scores.

"That may have been the most complete match we've played all season," Seim said. "We came out ready."